b looo 






LIBRA^OFCONGRESS, 

Chap..^.. Copyright No. 

'ShelfciASS 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.* 



AUG 22 




BORN NOV. 24. 1817. 



TAKEN NOV. 24, 1897. 



C^lfa/rT^uU t%PV4^t-£4- 



LIGHT IN DARK 
PLACES 



Theological Nuts, Philosophically Cracked, on the Rock 

of the Scriptures, with the Hammer 

of Common Sense 



BY 



Rev. Thomas Holmes, D. D. 



Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. — 1 Thess. v. 21. 



ANN ARBOR, MICH.: 
THE INLAND PRESS 



:D"T7 7 



The I 

OF 




136^1 



Copyright, 1898, 

BY 

Thomas Holmes. 




TW RECEIVED. 






INTRODUCTION, 



Every doctrine of a philosophical nature 
is pronounced true or false as it agrees or 
disagrees with a theory, hypothecated as a 
radical fact, according to which all phenom- 
ena pertaining to said theory are supposed 
to be explicable. The Ptolemaic system of 
astronomy was based upon the theory that 
the earth is the center of the universe, 
around which all celestial bodies revolve. 
Although this theory was known to be de- 
fective, in that certain phenomena could 
not be accounted for on that hypothesis, 
yet it could not be refuted until a theory 
was found that would furnish a rational and 
satisfactory explanation of all such phenom- 
ena. This the Copernican system finally 
accomplished; but it required the lapse of 
a century, and the passing away of three 
generations of Ptolemaic philosophers, be- 
fore its triumph was complete. 

Something very similar has also trans- 
pired in the theolbgical world. The theory 



iv Introduction. 

of the absolute, arbitrary, irresponsible 
Sovereignty of God, actuated by supreme 
devotion to his own glory, according to 
which, as elaborated by John Calvin, God 
foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, and 
predestinated, from eternity, the salvation 
of a portion of our race and the damnation 
of another portion, individually, notwith- 
standing the shocking conclusions to which 
it logically led, has prevailed and been re- 
garded as irrefutable for three hundred 
years, for the want of the careful working 
out of a better theory. In the following 
lectures the author believes he has thrown 
light upon many dark, mysterious, unsettled 
questions, through the application of the 
philosophy of Moral Agency. 

When Galileo announced to an aston- 
ished world that Jupiter had four moons, 
and his statement was disputed with great 
vehemence by others, because they could 
not see them, his unanswerable reply was, 
''Look through my telescope." In leaving 
this little volume behind me, as I step off 
"the stage of action," I want to make the 
same request. Let not the reader hastily 



Introduction. v 

pronounce the doctrines false that are taught 
in the following pages, because they do not 
all agree with popular opinions, with the 
teaching of some other author, or with his 
own ideas respecting them. Orthodoxy is 
progressive. Truths plainly taught in the 
Scriptures may yet remain undiscovered, for 
lack of the lens that is adapted to find them. 

The churches of two hundred years ago 
would not have received as private mem- 
bers, much less as pastors and theological 
teachers, the most distinguished theologians 
and preachers of the present day. The fact 
that some of the views here presented are 
new, and differ from doctrines the reader 
has been taught, lacks a great deal of being 
evidence that they are false. Satellites 
had revolved in their orbits around Jupiter 
for untold ages before Galileo published the 
fact on this planet; and there are, undoubt- 
edly, satellite truths revolving around the 
fundamental doctrines of the gospel, clearly 
revealed in the Word of God, yet undiscov- 
ered. 

The topics here discussed furnish an in- 
viting field for original investigation; be- 



vi Introduction. 

cause the key that unlocks their mysteries, 
the light that reveals their nature and log- 
ical connections, is now better understood, 
more clearly seen, than ever before since the 
world began. That light is acquaintance 
with the nature and philosophy of Moral 
Agency, and its practical bearings upon the 
relations of man to his God and to his fel- 
low men. 

These lectures deal mostly with disputed 
questions, and questions that are regarded, 
by many at least, as beyond the reach of 
human investigation. The author has no 
expectation that his views will receive the 
immediate assent of all his readers; nor that 
all his views will receive the immediate 
assent of any one of them. He hopes, 
however, when he does not convince, to 
awaken thought and investigation that will 
ultimately lead to progress along all these 
lines. 

Whatever may be found herein that 
seems to the reader heretical will not be the 
result of reckless disregard of the Scriptures 
of divine truth; nor of a determination to 
make out a case or carry a point, regardless 



Introduction. vii 

of evidence, or of the opinions of others; nor 
of the legitimate effect of the doctrines taught 
upon Christian faith, and upon the Chris- 
tian lives of those who may believe them. 
We fully believe that faith in the doctrines 
here taught will result in a far more intelli- 
gent, and for that reason in a far more con- 
sistent, successful and acceptable Christian 
life than can possibly result from belief of 
the errors here refuted. 

Of all conceivable attitudes of the human 
mind towards the facts, realities, conditions, 
circumstances, relations, obligations, and 
final awards of a human life, that which is 
most momentously important is a willing- 
ness, an earnest and intense desire and de- 
termination, to know the truth, the exact 
truth, and nothing but the truth, in regard 
to everything that has a bearing upon the 
welfare of the soul, both in this life and in 
the life to come. Error is no advantage to 
any one. Deception, whether self-imposed 
or practiced upon us by another, has no 
other than evil tendencies. Truth may not 
always be agreeable to us; may not always 
flatter our hopes or encourage our desires 



viii Introduction. 

and wishes, but it is always the best for us 
in the end, the very thing we need to know, 
to accept, to believe, to act upon. 

In investigating the questions discussed 
in this volume, we have endeavored to look 
at them from this standpoint, and from this 
standpoint we ask our readers to look at 
them. The views here presented are the 
result of more than three score years of 
study; nearly all of which was intended to 
be original investigation. An unbiased at- 
titude of mind, in matters that have been 
subjects of thought and discussion for ages, 
may possibly be unattainable, but it surely 
may be approached. 

A heart thoroughly consecrated to truth, 
not its apprehension only but its practice; a 
persistent purpose to embrace in premises 
every fact and circumstance obtainable, that 
has a bearing upon the conclusion sought, 
with large opportunities for obtaining such 
facts; an honest and resolute determination 
to hold every opinion previously formed sub- 
ject to such modification as new light, from 
any source, may demand; long and patient 
labor, with frequent re-examination of work 



Introduction. ix 

already performed; earnest and constant 
prayer for divine illumination; the whole 
prompted by at least a hope that the con- 
clusions arrived at may stand for truth dur- 
ing ages yet to come; are elements and 
necessary conditions of independent investi- 
gation. How far these have had sway in 
the mind and heart and labor of the author 
final results will determine. 

As postulates of procedure, the author 
has had frequent recourse to the follow- 
ing: 

1. Nothing should be rejected because 
it is old, nor received because it is new; 
neither should any doctrine be regarded as 
unalterable because it is old, nor rejected 
because it is new. While the fact that a 
doctrine has for ages been regarded as es- 
tablished is prima facie evidence of its truth, 
every doctrine, old or new, must yield the 
ground, when the evidence in its favor is 
overweighed by reliable evidence against it. 

2. Theorems in ethics and theology, in 
the light shed upon them by the nature and 
philosophy of moral agency, are as demon- 
strable as theorems in geometry. 



x Introduction. 

3. There is not a truth in the universe, 
whether it relates to Creator or creature, 
that God is not willing we should know, if 
we will find it, and bring it to the light. 
Hence there is nothing too sacred for the 
most free and searching investigation. We 
should investigate all truth reverently, but 
should not let undue reverence hinder thor- 
oughness. Above all things, we need have 
no fear nor hesitation in inquiring into the 
nature, essence, constitution, attributes, 
motives and methods of the Deity. There 
is nothing about God that he is unwilling 
we should know; and the more we know 
about him the more we shall revere him, the 
more perfectly shall we love him, and the 
more intelligently and acceptably shall we 
be able to serve him. 

4. No statement can be true t at dia- 
metrically contradicts reason and our knowl- 
edge of positive facts. 

Respecting the heresies my readers will 
think they find here, I want to say a few 
words. I am as well aware as any of my 
readers can be that, measured by the ac- 
cepted standards of "orthodoxy," many of 



Introduction. xi 

the conclusions here stated with great posi- 
tiveness must be pronounced erroneous; 
some of them perhaps dangerous. 

This fact has been the greatest stum- 
bling block in - the way of publishing 
the book. The approbation of others is 
very pleasant to me. I never realized the 
meaning of what has been called "the cour- 
age of conviction," until I faced seriously 
the question, Shall I give to the world the 
candid, honest, solemn conclusions at which 
I have arrived ? I am sure that no one who 
has never been brought face to face with 
such a question has any idea of the courage 
required to be true to God, true to convic- 
tion, true to the world, in the full con- 
sciousness of the possibility, perhaps the 
certainty, that dear and valued friends will 
cry out, "Away with him! Crucify him!" 

While some of the nuts that we believe 
we have successfully cracked have been en- 
veloped in a very thin shell, others have 
been incased in a very strange, unreasoning 
and unreasonable faith, or, more truly, 
appearance of faith — faith falsely so called 
— that has for ages prevented the least 



Xll 



Introduction. 



approach to a careful, thorough investigation. 
As such doctrines are held in an unreason- 
ing, unquestioning state of mind, any pro- 
posal to inquire into the soundness of the 
foundation upon which they rest is repelled 
at once, and refused consideration. By 
such persons many doctrines are declared to 
be too mysterious for comprehension, and 
must be taken on the ipse dixit of others 
who have enveloped them in mystery, but 
declared them to be true. 

This idea we have rejected entirely. We 
know of no mysteries, connected with God's 
methods of redeeming the fallen race of man, 
that may not be inquired into with the con- 
fident expectation of finding them conceiva- 
ble and reasonable. We admit that many 
things, facts that are to be believed, are of 
so high a grade of wisdom that we may not, 
in our present state of knowledge, or more 
properly ignorance, fathom and comprehend 
their philosophy; but we maintain, and work 
upon the hypothesis, that nothing can be 
true that squarely and positively contradicts 
our reason. He who made truth that per- 
tains to his creatures has given those to 



l?itroduciion. xiii 

whom it pertains reason to apprehend it. 

We accept willingly a paradox. We like 
to study a paradox. Its apparent contradic- 
tion contains a truth, and is a most impres- 
sive method of teaching it. Such a nut 
must necessarily require a certain degree of 
intelligence to crack it, in some cases more 
than in others, but it may be cracked, and 
its meat will be a luxury; its reasonableness 
will be clear and impressive. This is very 
different from an absurdity that squarely and 
positively contradicts reason, ignores well- 
known and universal facts, and defies the 
affirmations of common sense. 

It is useless to wrap such statements in 
" mystery," and declare them to be incom- 
prehensible to finite minds, but still truths 
that must be believed, the doubting of which 
should be branded as heresy. He who thus 
defies the demands of Christian charitable- 
ness is himself the worst of heretics. It is 
far worse to be disloyal to love than to dog- 
ma. Dogma may be false, but love is always 
true. 4 ' Now abideth faith, hope, love, these 
three; but the greatest of these is love." 

Some may inquire why I have not, in 



xiv Introduction. 

formal statement, arraigned the errors that 
stand over against the truths here presented. 
My reply is, My object is not controversy. 
I do not believe the controversial method ol 
handling religious questions, or any other 
questions, to be the best. The moment you 
arraign a supposed error, in that manner, 
you put its advocates upon its defense; and 
soon the attitude of the parties is not that of 
mutual inquest for truth, but which shall down 
his antagonist, whether by fair means or foul. 

My purpose is, if possible, to secure a 
candid hearing, by diverting the attention of 
an opponent from his fortifications, and, by 
a flag of truce, lure him into the open field, 
where we may confer together, not in a war- 
like but in a peaceable and reasonable man- 
ner. If I succeed in presenting my view of 
the question in a clear, convincing, unan- 
swerable manner, any candid reader will 
probably see, by looking through my tele- 
scope, objects that he cannot find in the one 
he has been using, and rejoice in the revela- 
tion of truth not previously apprehended. 

When you wish to light up a dark room, 
carry in a light, and the darkness will flee 



Introduction. xv 

away, without any argument, persuasion, 
threat or fight for possession. Error is dark- 
ness, truth is light. Let in the light, and 
there will be no darkness to fight. 

Of my critics I want to ask this favor. 
Lay aside, while reading this book, the glass 
through which you are accustomed to look at 
the questions here discussed, and look 
through my telescope; consider them in the 
light in which I have presented them. 
" Prove all things, hold fast that which is 
good." If you and I differ, one of us must 
be wrong. We may both be wrong, but it 
is impossible that we should both be right. 
If we carefully compare views, we may dis- 
cover where the error lies, and both find the 
truth. There is not a doctrine advanced, in 
the entire book, that the author will not re- 
nounce, if greater weight of truth and rea- 
son can be found against it than for it. Has 
the reader the moral courage to take the 
same attitude? If so, give us your hand. It 
is a bargain. I will look through your tele- 
scope, if you will look through mine. "Come 
and let us reason together." 

With these words of introduction and 



xvi Introduction. 

explanation, we lay our offering upon the 
altar of free, untrammeled inquiry, with the 
earnest prayer and hope that it may be ac- 
cepted of God, receive his benediction where- 
ever it may find a reader, and be helpful to 
all who are earnest seekers after truth. 

Chelsea, Mich., January, 1898. 



CONTENTS. 



LECTURE I. 

MORAL AGENCY. 

Conditions of— PAGE - 

i. Intelligence i 

2. Free will 2 

3. Opportunity to make a choice 5 

Such was the tree of forbidden fruit . . 6 

This story veritable history 9 

Questions answered n 

LECTURE II. 

SOUL, BODY, AND SPIRIT. 

Confusion of ideas respecting 16 

Jews and Christian fathers, trichotomists. . 17 

What is the Soul? 19 

Suggestion to psychologists 21 

What is the body? What are its uses?. ... 23 

What is the spirit? 24 

It is a human spirit 25 

It is the gift of God 26 

Uses of the spirit 27 

The spiritual body 29 

The man complete 30 

Thus constituted, must be a moral agent. . 32 
Brutes di-chotomous, cannot be moral 

agents 33 

Certain passages of Scripture 35 



xviii Contents. 

LECTURE III. 

THE FALL. 

Moral condition in which Adam and Eve 

were created 3^ 

Temptation necessary 4° 

The transgression 4 2 

Physical death not the result of sin 44 

"Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou 

return" was no part of the curse 47 

LECTURE IV. 

LAW. 

Physical laws 51 

Ceremonial laws 61 

Moral laws . 64 

Not enactments of a sovereign 65 

Arise from relations. God subject to them 

as well as men 66 

Law makers should understand this 70 

The ten commandments 72 

The fourth commandment 73 

Fallacy of Sabbatarians 76 

Reasons and authority for the change. ... 77 

LECTURE V. 

PENALTIES. 

Governments exist for the benefit of the 

governed 82 

Penalties of divine law not punitive 83 

Divine idea of punishment disciplinary. . . 84 

Treatment of incorrigible offenders 86 

No treatment of sinners inconsistent with 

love 88 



Contents. xix 

LECTURE VI. 

THE ATONEMENT. 

The word denned 90 

Parties to be reconciled 91 

Sin; its misery and bondage. This is hell 92 
Moral agency not destroyed by the bond- 
age of sin 92 

Seventh chapter of Romans not Christian 

experience 93 

Jesus, the Christ, comes to deliver 96 

Justice and Mercy not antagonistic 96 

God's purpose is to secure, by merciful 
means, the ends demanded by justice. . . 98 

The exact situation described 100 

When Justice and Mercy are both satisfied, 

nothing more is necessary 102 

How did Jesus, the son of man, effect this? 104 
The incorrigible not benefitted by the 

atonement 107 

Love more potent than dread of punish- 
ment to secure loyalty 108 

Grateful loyalty more potent than the strong- 
est resolutions to resist temptation in 

A better end reached than justice ever 

dreamed of 112 

The lost compelled to acknowledge the 

justice of their condemnation 112 

Merciful agencies move the sinner to pen- 
itence, which punishment never does. . . 113 

These points gained, pardon is safe t 14 

Multitudes now saved, when all would nave 

been lost 115 

The plan of salvation not an after-thought 116 



xx Contents. 

Jesus' sacrifice and suffering voluntary 117 

That no sacrifice was necessary, a fallacy.. 119 
Remarks 121 

LECTURE VII. 

REGENERATION — CONVERSION. 

These words not synonymous 129 

Moral condition of the unregenerate 131 

No happiness in this condition 135 

The steps of this progressive change; viz., 
the begetting of a new life by the Spirit, 
heeding the call, penitence, repentance, 
prayer for pardon, pardon, faith, wit- 
ness of the Spirit, are treated in their 
order 137 to 155 

LECTURE VIII. 

ANGELS. 

Who are the angels? 156 

Are they moral agents? 158 

Some of them sinned and became demons 160 
Personality of the devil 166 

Who made the devil? A silly question .... 170 
Why are demons allowed to tempt us?. ... 173 

LECTURE IX. 

THE GODHEAD. 

The word Godhead suggests, and the word 

Elohim expresses plurality of persons. . 178 

The first person is the Infinite ONE 179 

His necessary attributes 182 

His moral attributes 191 

Is God a moral agent? 193 

The Executive Deity — the Word — the Son 202 



Contents. xxi 

The second person in the Godhead 204 

A distinct, self-conscious person 205 

Esposition of John 1 : t, The Word was 

God 206 

The Holy Spirit — His personality 225 

Uses of the phrase Holy Spirit 229 

Whence does the Holy Spirit "proceed?".. 241 
Is the Holy Spirit a third person in the 

Godhead ? 246 

Objections answered 252 

LECTURE X. 

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 

An important error disposed of 256 

The sin against the Holy Spirit 259 

Eternal punishment means eternal sin. . . . 260 

Moral agency shows its possibility 261 

Jesus taught its certainty 263 

Same result reached by another argument.. 265 

Who are the lost? 267 

This eternal doom self-inflicted 270 

LECTURE XL 

FUTURE PROBATION. 

Eternal sin means eternal moral agency. . . 272 
This question of no significance to those 

who have made their choice 273 

Classes to which this question pertains.. . . 274 

To what source shall we look for light?. . . 275 
Moral agency means probation; hence, 
every moral agent, good or bad, will be 

eternally on probation 281 

This fact assures moral stability 283 



ERRATA. 

Page 6 1. — Change 2 to II. 
Page 64. — Change 3 to III. 



LECTURE I. 



MORAL AGENCY. 

Many have confused ideas on the sub- 
ject of moral agency, because they suppose 
an agent to be one who transacts business 
for another, and that the employer is res- 
ponsible for the acts of the agent. This is 
not the primary use of the word. The 
Standard Dictionary defines thus: — "Agent. 
I. One who or that which acts or has 
the power to act; an active power or efficient 
cause of any thing. 2. One who or that 
which acts for another." In speaking of a 
moral agent, the word is always used in its 
primary sense. 

A moral agent is a voluntary actor, whose 
acts may have moral character; that is, may 
be right or wrong. This will be more clearly 
understood as we proceed to consider 

THE CONDITIONS OF MORAL AGENCY. 

I. An indispensable condition of moral 
agency is a kind and degree of intelligence 
that will enable its possessor to receive in-- 



2 Moral Age?icy. 

struction by precept. He must understand, 
from preceptive instruction, what to do, why 
he should do it, and that consequences de- 
pend upon obedience or disobedience. Brutes 
learn only from experience; hence moral 
agency is to them impossible. Not to be 
able to understand the import of a command, 
and the nature of an obligation, until the 
consequences of obedience or disobedience 
are learned from experience, would be an 
anomaly and absurdity in morals. 

The intelligence of a moral agent must 
also be sufficient to enable him to reason 
a priori. The connection between cause 
and effect must be obvious to him, and 
hence the nature, importance and sacredness 
of an obligation will be apprehended through 
a rational perception, and his act of obe- 
dience or disobedience will be intentional, in 
consideration of or in disobedience to his 
sense of obligation, as apprehended by his 
intelligence. 

2. Another indispensable condition of 
moral agency is what is called the Free Will. 
By free will is meant will acting in the pres- 
ence of an alternative — the soul so situated 



Moral Agency. 3 

that it can choose this or that. Two ways, 
or more, are open before it; either, or any 
one, of which it can enter or refuse to enter. 
This is also called Will in Liberty; because 
the will is at liberty to make choice of either 
of two, or any one of several, objects or 
courses of conduct. The Free Will, Will in 
Liberty, resembles very closely a judge, 
considering a case as presented by contend- 
ing advocates. Each advocate pleads his 
case, giving his reasons why decision should 
be rendered in his favor, and the judge de- 
cides in favor of one as against the others. 

In making its choices, the will is abso- 
lutely, unqualifiedly self-determining. It is 
defiant of any authority, human or divine, 
or any coercive influence that can be brought 
upon it. It can be influenced by reason, if 
it choose to listen to reason; but in spite of 
all the demands of reason that which is unrea- 
sonable may be chosen. It matters not 
what direful consequences may impend; how 
dreadful to the thought, how painful to the 
feelings, how torturing to the flesh, how 
maddening to the conscience; the will; that 
is, the soul in the exercise of its choice, may 



4 Moral Agency. 

still maintain an attitude of resistance, de- 
fiance, insubordination. On the other hand, 
the will is just as capable, just as indepen- 
dent, just as potential, in its choice of that 
which is right, when it so determines. 
The world, the flesh and the devil, all the 
hosts and powers of darkness, are impotent to 
compel its assent to that which is wrong. 
The will of a moral agent cannot be coerced. 
The brute will must yield to the demands of 
the flesh; the human will may refuse obe- 
dience to the demands both of the flesh and 
of the spirit, even the Spirit of God. Few 
people seem to have any conception of this 
wonderful sovereignty of the will. In the 
freedom of its action, in its choices, it is as 
independent of the will of God, as the will of 
God is independent of the will of man. This 
will in liberty, this power of unrestrained, 
uncoerced, independent choice, is the most 
wonderful of all the creations of the Infinite 
One, of which we have any knowledge. This 
unlimited sovereignty of choice is the neces- 
sary, the unalterable condition, the consti- 
tutional basis, of every act that has moral 
character. For such acts, and such only, 



Moral Agency. 5 

the actor, the agent, is responsible and 
accountable. He who is thus endowed, and 
he only, is a moral agent. This peculiarity 
of man, this capacity for moral agency, is 
"the image of God" in which he was 
created. 

The positive, and the only positive, 
proof of this freedom, this sovereignty, is 
consciousness. There is not a moral agent 
in the universe, who has not the conscious- 
ness that he possesses the power to thus 
make his own choices, irrespective of the 
Commands, the wishes, even the persuasions, 
of any other person in the universe or of all 
others united. 

3. The third condition of moral agency, 
or more properly of a moral act, is oppor- 
tunity to make a choice; that is, the pres- 
ence of an alternative. Whatever may be 
the degree of intelligence with which the 
Creator has endowed the creature, unless 
an alternative of action is present, no act 
that the creature can perform can have 
moral character. Such opportunities are 
present, whenever intelligent beings are in 
such circumstances as create an obligation 



6 Moral Agency. 

to pursue a given course of conduct. Only 
in such circumstances has the free will op- 
portunity to make a choice for which it alone 
— that is, the soul thus exercising choice — 
is responsible. The necessary alternative 
is found in these circumstances. They con- 
stitute the opportunity. 

Such opportunities are all comprised in 
one's duties to God, to other intelligences 
human or angelic, to any sentient creature, 
and to himself. His loyalty to God, to 
righteousness, to self, is thus tested; and 
his loyalty or disloyalty is made manifest. 
Men do not even know themselves until thus 
tested; much less are they known to others. 

The tree of forbidden fruit, mentioned 
in Gen. 2: 16, 17, is intended to illustrate 
both the fact and the nature of such oppor- 
tunities. God has often been blamed for 
placing that temptation before our innocent 
first parents. Men say, "Why did God 
place a tree in the garden of Eden, the fruit 
of which should be forbidden ? Manifestly 
our parents were happy, until they partook 
of that fruit. Why not let them continue 
happy? Does not this act, if we ^ive 



Moral Agency. 7 

credence to the story, directly and positively 
antagonize the oft asserted claim that God is 
infinitely wise and benevolent? Surely this 
must have been a blunder that compromises 
his wisdom, or an act of malevolence that 
contradicts his goodness." 

Thus "bold, bad men" question the 
claims of Christianity, in regard to this act 
of Providence; while others, whose confi- 
dence in God is so firm and unshaken that 
they avow faith in what seems to them to 
contradict reason, observation and experi- 
ence, are quite unable to reconcile the para- 
dox. To both these classes let me say, All 
the mysteries of this extraordinary transac- 
tion are easily solved in the light of the na- 
ture and principles of moral agency. 

This tree of forbidden fruit furnished the 
opportunity for our first parents to prove their 
loyalty to their Creator and Sovereign; their 
worthiness of the exalted position they occu- 
pied in the creation; and also to greatly in- 
crease their own happiness. The question 
to be tested was whether they would obey 
God or disobey him. Obedience would have 
made them holy, and brought to their con- 



8 Moral Agency. 

sciousness his approving smile, which would 
have been life to them. . "Thy favor is 
life." The blissful satisfaction that results 
from doing right would have been theirs. 
Instead of this, they disobeyed, and found 
out immediately that "the wages of sin is 
death," just as God had predicted. The 
serpent had assured them positively, 4 ' Thou 
shalt not surely die"; but the act was dis- 
pleasing to God, they lost his favor, they 
were dead. 

This act of disobedience was entirely 
voluntary, their own act. No one could be 
blamed for it but themselves. The tempter 
was responsible for the lie he told, and for 
soliciting them to disobey; but the act of 
transgression was theirs. This is account- 
ability. Hence comes character. Without 
this test (or some other) to do wrong, to 
disobey, moral character would have been 
impossible. Note well, however, any one of 
ten thousand other tests would have ans- 
wered the same purpose; and would, un- 
doubtedly, have been followed by the same 
result. Manifestly God chose this because 
the nature of the whole transaction could be 



Moral Agency. 9 

easily understood and comprehended by the 
human mind, even in the infancy of our 
race. 

If asked if I believe the account of the 
temptation and fall, as given in the third 
chapter of Genesis, to be veritable history, 
I answer, Certainly. The questioning of the 
reliability of the account given us of this 
transaction is one of the many instances of 
inexcusable ignorance, that result from 
thoughtlessness and neglect to exercise com- 
mon sense. The record of the transaction 
is given to reveal to the race two facts, that 
it is of the greatest importance to them to 
understand. These are the nature of an 
obligation, and the freedom of a moral agent 
to obey or disobey. These are the most 
important facts. Of minor importance is 
the fact that our first parents, like all their 
posterity, fell into sin. Is it not most rea- 
sonable to suppose that the facts in the case 
would be given to the world just as they oc- 
curred ? What would be gained by giving a 
fictitious account of the event instead of a 
true one ? Of the ten thousand tests pos- 
sible, only one was necessary to test the 



io Moral Agency. 

point in question. What reason can any 
one give for supposing that .the method act- 
ually employed was suppressed, and a fiction 
substituted ? Is that like God ? How could 
a falsehood serve a better purpose than the 
truth ? What would be gained by recording 
a lie in order to teach an important principle 
of morals ? Would it not be a queer exam- 
ple of the wisdom of the Sovereign ruler to 
bring so great and important an event about 
in such a manner that it became necessary to 
hide the facts in the case, and reveal the 
nature of the transaction by means of a 
falsehood ? How much would that lack of 
doing evil that good might come ? Are not 
facts better adapted to teach morals than 
fables ? 

Let us also bear in mind the well known 
fact that opportunity, as a condition to moral 
agency, is just as essential and just as omni- 
present in the case of every son and daugh- 
ter of Adam as it was in his case. Nor is 
forbidden fruit presented only at the com- 
mencement of responsibility. Trees of for- 
bidden fruit, speaking now figuratively, are 
standing not only in every man's garden of 



Moral Agency. i r 

Eden, but on either side of the pathway of 
life, all the way from the cradle to the grave. 
These are constant tests of loyalty to God, to 
our fellow men, to ourselves; and the choices 
we make, when the opportunities are before 
us, will determine our character and our 
destiny. 

A question is often asked that, although 
indirectly answered already, should, perhaps 
receive a little more attention. "If there 
must be opportunity to sin, why did not God 
make man so that he could not sin?" The 
only meaning this question can have, if it 
has any meaning at all, is, Why did not God 
make another order of brutes, instead of 
making a creature that is capable of possess- 
ing moral character, a creature that is res- 
ponsible for his conduct, in short, a moral 
agent ? The probability is that God had 
created all the brutes he wanted. How 
would it do to suggest that, knowing the end 
from the beginning, God saw that man would 
be quite ready enough to make a brute of 
himself ? Since ability to sin is just as essen- 
tial to a moral agent as opportunity to sin, 
he must either endow him with the power to 



1 2 Moral Agency. 

sin, that is with a free will, or not make him 
a moral agent. On this very ground we assert 
the sovereignty of the human will over its 
choices, and the impossibility of its coercion. 
The moment the will of any intelligent being 
should be coerced, overpowered, so that it 
should not enjoy absolute freedom of choice, 
moral agency, and consequently account- 
ability, would cease, and only a brute would 
be found, where a moral agent had been and 
should be. 

Another question, and one of no little im- 
portance, well deserving careful attention, 
is, ' ' Did the Creator know, when he created 
man, that he would sin? If he was aware 
of that dreadful fact, involving, possibly, 
the eternal despair of multitudes of deathless 
souls, what can justify him in giving exist- 
ence to our race?" 

To this question I answer, Most assuredly 
God knew, when he created man, that he 
would sin. Omniscience is one of his nec- 
essary attributes. Were it otherwise, he 
would be finite, and like other finite. beings, 
would know nothing he did not learn. He 
could forecast nothing, only as the probable 



Moral Agency. 13 

results of causes, with the existence of which, 
and with the laws of whose operation, he was 
already acquainted, having previously learned 
them; and such forecast, like the presience 
of man, would be very limited. Such a be- 
ing would hardly be sufficient for the plan- 
ning and construction of a universe like this, 
in which we have our being, and of which 
we form a part. 

As to his justification, in giving existence 
to our race y under such fearful possibilities 
and certainties, this is found in the very fact 
that he is infinitely wise and good. Like 
all moral agents, God is under obligation to 
himself, as well as to his intelligent crea- 
tures, to seek the highest good of the great- 
est number. He must seek the greatest ag- 
gregation of well-being. The good of being 
is the motive of all his works, of all his re- 
quirements, and of all his dealings with his 
intelligent creatures. Because it was ap- 
parent to his infinite foresight that more 
good than evil would result from the creation 
of moral agents, he created them. 

Much as we lack of the infinite benevo- 
lence that moved him to the vast undertak- 



14 Moral Agency. 

ing, there is not one of us who would not do 
the same, under the same circumstances; if 
we had the same foresight and the same 
ability. Suppose the entire list of inventors, 
from the Marquis of Worcester to Robert 
Fulton, who were instrumental in the dis- 
covery and successful working of steam- 
power, could have foreseen all the terrible, 
shocking, heart rending, agonizing, indes- 
cribable accidents, by land and by sea, that 
would inevitably result from their experi- 
ments; and at the same time, could have 
had also the companion vision of all the 
benefits that the world would realize from 
their discoveries and devices, would any one 
justify them, had they been deterred by the 
grief and suffering that would result, and 
suppressed the great and beneficent improve- 
ments, that were brought into use by their 
agency; and left the world destitute of all 
their advantages, as we enjoy them to-day ? 
If no moral agents had been created, brute 
satisfaction, simply sensuous gratification, 
would have been the highest enjoyment 
known in the whole range of sensuous crea- 
tures. 



Moral Agency. 15 

Keep ever in mind that a moral agent 
who can not sin is an impossibility. Thus 
we see not only that the wisdom and good- 
ness of God, in creating man a moral agent, 
are vindicated, but that he himself would 
have been censurable in the highest degree; 
condemned, an infinite sinner, if he had not 
made man just as he has. We also see that 
the planting of the tree of forbidden fruit 
was one of the indispensable features of his 
wise and wondrous plan. Men do not " fall 
upward " when they fall into sin; but every 
opportunity to sin is also an opportunity to 
show their loyalty to God, and to attain a 
standard of virtue and holiness that can be 
attained only in the face of such opportunity. 
Ability and opportunity to sin are the indis- 
pensible conditions of holiness. 



LECTURE II. 



SOUL, BODY AND SPIRIT. 

These words are often used in the scrip- 
tures; sometimes together, sometimes sepa- 
rately. In Heb. 4:12, we read of "the di- 
viding asunder of soul and spirit," and in 
1 Thess. 5:23 we read, "I pray God your 
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved 
blameless." Who has not paused, after 
reading these passages, and asked himself, 
Do these three words — soul, body, spirit — 
include all there is in the essence of man ? 
and does each word both fully express its 
own concept, and completely exclude the 
concept of each and both the other words ? 
If such is the fact, if each of these words is 
thus inclusive and thus exclusive, great con- 
fusion respecting the boundaries that limit 
the scope and realm of each exists to-day. 
If it is not the fact, why should their usage 
be characterized by a discrimination so mani- 
fest and so carefully observed throughout 
the word of God? In common usage, to- 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 17 

day, no distinction or discrimination what- 
ever is made in the use of the words soul 
and spirit. Learned preachers, theological 
professors, commentators and common peo- 
ple, use these words as though they were 
perfect synonyms. In the word of God this 
is not the case. Throughout the entire 
scriptures we believe there is no instance, 
when rationally interpreted, in which these 
two words are used interchangeably. The 
word soul is never used to name the spirit; 
and the word spirit is never used to name the 
soul. The truth is they are separate parts 
of the man, as distinct and unlike as are the 
soul and the body. 

The Jews held well denned ideas as to 
the existence of a tripartite nature in man; 
but precisely what psychological facts and 
functions were attributed to soul and spirit 
separately I have been unable to ascertain^ 
Josephus (Ant. I. 1,2) affirms that Moses says,. 
" God took dust from the ground and formed 
man, and inserted in him a spirit and a soul. "' 
The early Christian Fathers; Justin Martyr,. 
Clement, Origen and others, were clear-cut; 
trichotomists; but the farther down the 



T S Soul, Body and Spirit. 

stream of time we come, the more turbid we 
find its waters upon this subject. 

Commentators, essayists, preachers and 
exegetes of every class have treated the sub- 
ject, some more intelligently and profoundly 
than others, but among them all no one has 
given a definition clearly discriminating be- 
tween the soul and the spirit. So far as dis- 
tinction is attempted, the soul is supposed by 
some to be the seat of the affections and 
passions, the lower region of the inner man, 
while reason and conscience and volition are 
assigned to the spirit. Some suppose the 
soul and spirit united constitute the undying, 
imperishable part of man, while others main- 
tain that the soul perishes with the body, 
and that the spirit only enters into a future 
life. 

In our discussion of the question, we 
propose to turn from the conflicting opinions 
of uninspired men, and consult only the Di- 
vine Oracles. These contain, in our estima- 
tion, the most clear, definite, positive infor- 
mation on the subject, to be found any- 
where. Our first inquiry is, 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 19 

WHAT IS THE SOUL ? 

The soul is an organic essence, substan- 
tial but not material. The word soul 
(Hebrew, Nephesh; Greek, psuche) is ap- 
plied, in the scriptures, to every creature that 
has animal life. In the fifth epoch of creation, 
God said (Gen. i. , 20, ) ' ' Let the waters bring 
forth abundantly the moving creature that 
hath Nephesh, soul; and in the sixth epoch 
(Gen. i., 30), when the creation was com- 
pleted, God gave the green herb for meat to 
every beast of the earth, every fowl of the 
air, and every thing that creepeth upon the 
earth, wherein there is Nephesh, soul. Every 
beast of the earth, every fowl of the air, and 
every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 
then, has soul. Does this include man ? 
In Gen. ii., 7, we read, "And the Lord God 
formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, 
and man became a living soul," (Nephesh). 
Since, then, brutes and men alike have souls, 
the inference is safe that some of the pre- 
dicates of this word will be found in every 
creature that has animal life. This does not 
necessarily imply that all its predicates must 



20 Soul, Body and Spirit. 

be found in each living creature, since the 
diversity of capacity, in the different orders 
of the animal kingdom, is almost infinite. 
The soul of the snail can not be as compre- 
hensive as the soul of man. It is, never- 
theless, a soul; and, reasoning from analogy, 
some of the predicates of the soul of man 
should be found also in each brute. 

What, now, are the facts in the case ? In- 
quire carefully into the psychology of brutes 
and note what you find. The brute sees, 
hears, feels, tastes, smells, perceives, thinks, 
experiences pleasure and pain, joy and sor- 
row, delight and anger, desire and gratifi- 
cation of desire, arrives at conclusions which 
is a function of reason, plans and executes 
plans, makes choices and forms purposes; 
and all these in the exercise of mere con- 
stitutional endowments. Of course the 
scope and limit of these psychological mani- 
festations are always determined by the en- 
dowment of each individual. Note now, 
the agent of all these activities in the brute 
is the soul. Not one of them can be pre- 
dicated of the body. 

Turning our attention to man, we find all 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 21 

these activities predicated of his soul. The 
soul is the real man, the inner man, the seat 
of thought, the center of feeling, the throne 
of judgment, the mysterious subjective Ego, 
that wills, and originates all the choices and 
activities of the entire organism. 

At this point I want to make a suggestion 
to psychologists. They uniformly use the 
word mind, instead of soul, to represent the 
thinking, feeling, willing man. From care- 
ful study of the scriptures, I believe this is 
an error. The scripture discrimination, 
when carefully studied in the languages in 
which they were written, is this: — The three 
activities — thought, emotion, volition — are 
attributed to the soul. The soul thinking 
is the mind. The soul in the exercise of 
emotion is the heart. The soul willing is 
the responsible man. The whole constitutes 
the moral agent. This distinction, it is true, 
will call for a different translation of several 
passages of scripture, a revision of definitions 
in our dictionaries, and some changes of 
phraseology in theological statements, as 
well as a new work on psychology, but what 
of that ? Should not all these, and com- 



22 Soul, Body and Spirit. 

mon parlance 'too, conform to truth, at 
whatever cost ? This is surely the best, if 
not the only, way to let light in upon dark 
places. Ignorance and error are darkness; 
knowledge and truth are light. Let the light 
shine. 

The soul, then, is the one mind psycho- 
logists tell us about, having three capacities, 
three modes of activity — thought, emotion, 
volition. All psychological exercises, active 
and passive, are attributed to it. In the 
soul lies the individuality; in the case of 
man, the personality. Man is soul; he has 
body and spirit. The admission of these 
facts, and they can not be successfully dis- 
puted, necessitates a conclusion that, used 
logically, must inevitably clear away the be- 
wilderment and perplexity with which this 
question has for ages been invested, and 
establish, beyond dispute or doubt, the doc- 
trine of the trichotomy of man. 

Before passing to our next inquiry, it 
may be well to note that the word soul is 
often used to denote the whole man. "All 
the souls of the house of Jacob, which came 
into the land of Egypt, were three score and 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 23 

ten," (Gen. xlvi., 46:27), is only one of a large 
number of instances of this usage. Our 
next inquiry is 

WHAT IS THE BODY ? 

The human body is a material organism, 
adapted to the uses of the human soul, in 
the present state or stage of its existence. 
It is the house in which the soul lives, its 
material dwelling place, while passing 
through its mortal life. Through the ma- 
terial organs of sense — the nerves of sight, 
hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling — the 
soul becomes conscious of the material uni- 
verse, and acquaints itself with the qualities 
and attributes of matter, in its various forms, 
changes, uses and laws. These are its re- 
ceptivities. By means of other organs of 
the body, each soul manifests to other souls 
the products of its own three modes of ac- 
tivity — intelligence, sensibility and will. 
These are its activities. By a mysterious 
and, up to this time, inexplicable connec- 
tion, the soul imparts to the body a condi- 
tion that we call life, rendering the body 
thoroughly subservient to the uses and will 



24 Soul, Body and Spi?'it. 

of the soul, within certain prescribed limits 
of activity. On this account the word soul 
is used to signify life itself, anima, as well 
as the living creature, animus. This life is 
declared in the scriptures to be in the blood. 
In Lev. xvii. , n, we read, "The life of the 
flesh is in the blood;" and in Deut. xii., 23, 
"The life is the blood." 

Now, mark well, right here, though the 
soul gives life to the body, and uses the body 
as the servant of its own purposes, it imparts 
to the body none of its own powers or func- 
tions. The body knows nothing, feels 
nothing, wills nothing. The soul is a vital 
essence, the body a mere instrument. Sub- 
servient to the will of the indwelling soul, 
the body is as the staff in the hand, with- 
out knowledge, without feeling, without 
motive, without purpose, without account- 
ability. The third and last constituent of 
man is 

THE SPIRIT. 

The Hebrew word translated spirit is 
Ruach, the Greek, pneuma. The thing thus 
named is, like the soul, an organic essence, 
substantial but not material. We come 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 25 

now to disputed ground; the real nature 
and offices of the human spirit. That much 
error exists here is evident from the fact that 
scarcely two writers on the subject agree. 
Of all the theories advanced, only one can 
be true, and our opinion is that not one of 
them all is true. 

The spirit is the distinctive feature of 
man, the element of his constitution that 
makes him human. All the characteristic 
differences that distinguish men from brutes 
are effected through the spirit, due to it. 
These differences are not inherent in the 
spirit; but the presence of the spirit, as a 
distinct part of the man, furnishes the neces- 
sary occasion for the differences. It sup- 
plies the conditions that enable the soul to 
exercise those functions that do not belong 
to the brute, and that we call human. Res- 
pecting the spirit we note the following pecu- 
liarities: 

1. It is a human spirit. It is not the 
spirit of God, nor in any sense the Divine 
spirit. It is not "a spark of divinity," 
struck off from the Divine mind, and im- 
planted in man. In the scriptures, it is 



26 Soul, Body and Spirit. 

never called the Spirit of God, nor a Di-2 
vine spirit, but often the spirit of man. It 
pertains to and is found in no other crea- 
ture than man. To him, however, that is, 
to his manhood, to everything that elevates 
him above the condition of a brute, every- 
thing that we call human, it is essential. 

2. The spirit of man is the gift of God. 
In Zechariah xii., I, we read, "The Lord 
formeth the spirit of man within him." In 
Numbers xvi., 22 and xxvii., 16, he is called 
"The God of the spirits of all flesh"; in 
Hebrews xii. , 9, " The father of spirits ' ' ; and 
in Ecclesiastes xii., 7, we -are told that, at 
death, "The spirit shall return to God who 
gave it." This is language that is never 
used with reference to the soul, and seems 
to intimate that, while the soul and the 
body are the product of generation, the 
spirit is given, as in the case of Adam, when 
God breathes into his nostrils the breath of 
life, and man becomes a living soul. As to 
the exact time when the spirit is given, is 
implanted in man, whether before or at the 
time of birth, we have no hint, and it would 
be folly to be wise above what is written. 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 27 

3. The uses of the spirit are plainly indi- 
cated in such passages as these: Job xxxii., 
8, "There is a spirit in man, and the inspira- 
tion of the Almighty giveth them understand- 
ing. " Romans viii. , 16, "The Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit." A very 
significant and impressive text is Proverbs 
xx., 27, "The spirit of man is the candle of 
the Lord." 

The idea that I get from these passages 
is that the spirit of man is the medium of 
communication between the spirit world and 
the soul of man, just as the body is the me- 
dium of communication between the soul 
and the material universe. This is the key 
to all that is new in my theory and treat- 
ment of this subject. The human spirit is 
not an intelligence. We have seen that all 
intellectual, emotional and volitional pow- 
ers and functions are predicted of the soul. 
Can they, or any part of them, belong to 
the spirit also ? It is too clearly a matter 
of course tor argument, and almost too 
manifest to require statement, that no in- 
stance can be found, in all the handiwork of 
God, where he has duplicated his work by 



28 Soul, Body and Spirit. 

endowing with the same faculties or func- 
tions two distinct elemental parts of the same 
creature. If the soul thinks, the spirit does 
not think. If the soul feels, the spirit does 
not feel. If the soul wills, the spirit does 
not exercise the power of volition. The 
soul of the brute does all these things; and 
can the soul of man do less ? 

Moreover, since the soul is furnished 
with material organs, through which to hold 
communication with material existences, is 
not that very fact a hint that it must have 
spiritual organs through which to hold com- 
munication with spiritual existences? If such 
organs are necessary, where shall we look 
for them, but in the spirit? What other 
rational use can be found for the spirit? 
The perplexing question, in all ages, has 
been, What are the functions or uses of the 
spirit? and for lack of a rational and con- 
sistent answer to this inquiry the most ab- 
surd theories have been devised, we may 
with propriety say, "conjured up." The 
one fundamental error, lying at the bottom 
of all these theories, is the assumption that 
the spirit is endowed with intelligence; that 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 29 

it is a part of the mind, and that certain 
mental and moral attributes belong to it. 
Yield this point, abandon this hypothesis, 
and the whole subject is cleared of mist and 
doubt immediately. 

4. We are now prepared for our last and 
most startling statement. It is this: The 
spirit of man is the spiritual body, spoken 
of by the Apostle Paul, 1 Cor. xv. , 44, 
"There is a spiritual body." We support 
this proposition by the following considera- 
tions: 

(1) The spirit, as already shown, is the 
medium of the same receptivities and the 
agent of the same activities, in the spiritual 
world, as the body is in the material world. 
Through the organs of the spirit the soul 
sees spiritual objects, hears spiritual voices, 
feels spiritual influences, tastes the heavenly 
manna that sustains the spiritual life, and 
smells the odors that are exhaled from the 
fields of Paradise. By means of the spirit 
it manifests to the spiritual world, and to 
this world also, its choices of good or evil, 
and its works of righteonsness or of iniquity. 

The generally received idea is that the 



30 Soul, Body and Spirit. 

spiritual body will be given to man at the 
resurrection and not before. Undoubtedly 
that is the body with which he shall come 
forth. The error lies in the hypothesis that 
he has no spiritual body now. The Apostle 
says, " There is a spiritual body," not, 
There shall be a spiritual body. 

(2) That the functions of the human 
spirit are analogous to those of the human 
body is, also, a most convincing evidence 
that the human spirit is the spiritual body. 
Why should the organism through which 
the soul manifests itself be called a body in 
the one case and not in the other? More- 
over, if there is a spiritual body, what can 
it be, and what must be its object and uses, 
other than such as are predicated of the 
spirit? and if the object and uses are the" 
same, must not the substance be the same 
also? 

THE MAN COMPLETE. 

A complete man now stands before us, 
tripartite in his constitution, and with each 
of his three elemental parts distinctly de- 
fined. Whatever defects may be found in 
our theory, whatever it may lack of com- 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 31 

mending itself to the superior judgment of 
my fellow-seekers after truth, it certainly 
has this merit; the sphere and scope of 
each concept is clearly consistent and de- 
finite. Confusion of contents is impossible. 
This is strong evidence of its. truth; and 
more than can be said in favor of any other 
theory that has ever been presented. Does 
error ever resemble truth so closely, in these 
respects and particulars? 

Whether this is the true man — man as 
God made him — must, however, be further 
tested, by careful inquiry as to whether he 
is competent, in the relations and uses of 
.his several parts, and under his circum- 
stances as related to God and to his fellow- 
men, to meet the demands of his situation. 
If he fail in this particular, the failure must 
be admitted to be complete. It matters 
not how fine a piece of mechanism may be 
constructed, nor with what ingenuity and 
skill its parts may be adapted and adjusted, 
each to the others, if the machine fail to per- 
form the work it was devised and intended 
to perform, it must be pronounced a failure. 
On the other hand, if it accomplish the 



32 Soul, Body and Spirit. 

purpose for which it was constructed, and 
surpass all other machines ever constructed 
for that purpose, its success should be 
frankly acknowledged, though the model 
should be quite new and unlike any that had 
preceded it. Have I not a right to demand 
the application of the same principle, in re- 
gard to this subject? If others dare submit 
their theories to this test, I will cheerfully 
take my chances. We proceed then, to in- 
quire, Can this man be 

A MORAL AGENT? 

Here our triumph is complete. He not 
only can be, but he must be a moral agent: 
and the how and the why are so easily ex- 
plained that a child can comprehend and 
understand the problem and its solution. 
The mysteries of self-consciousness, con- 
sciousness of right and wrong in self and 
others, reason, will in liberty, that is, in the 
presence of an alternative, conscience, ac- 
countability, sin, regeneration, holiness, and 
all the potentialities, experiences and activi- 
ties, that distinguish man from the brute, 
and ally him to angels and to God himself, 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 33 

are made so plain, so easy of comprehen- 
sion, that wayfaring men, though not blessed 
with high literary attainments or scholastic 
degrees, may revel in them with delight. 

The brute is di-chotomous, constituted 
of soul and body only; hence desire and 
volition are prompted in one direction only. 
His intercourse is with the material world 
through the material body; hence no alter- 
native is possible. Every desire has its 
origin in the flesh, is of the earth earthy; 
and the will, without opposition, assents to 
its gratification. Volition is possible only 
in this direction; and the whole life is neces- 
sarily sensuous. Desire is checked only by 
instinct; and volition, by experience. Pain- 
ful consequences may lead to self-restraint; 
but experience is the only school in which 
he learns. For these reasons, a choice, re- 
specting which right or wrong could be pre- 
dicated, such choice as would give moral 
character as its product, is impossible.. 
Hence the brute neither is nor can be a 
moral agent. 

In man the case is different. Through 

the spiritual body, in the use of spiritual 
3 



34 Soul, Body and Spirit. 

senses, the human soul is in communication 
with spiritual things; while, at the same 
time, through the material body, in the use 
of physical senses, it is in communication 
with the world of matter and all that per- 
tains to it. One soul dwells in two bodies. 
Two worlds, two spheres of life, two classes 
of influences, directly opposite in their char- 
acter, the one earthly and degrading, the 
other spiritual and ennobling, lie open be- 
fore him, and urge their claims upon him. 
Thus he has an alternative. The conditions 
of actual choice are now fulfilled. The sov- 
ereign Will now asserts itself in liberty, un- 
der a solemn sense of responsibility. Rea- 
son weighs the consequences of either choice. 
Conscience presents its smiling approval, on 
the one hand, or its terrible scorpion sting, 
on the other. The enlightened soul is con- 
scious that it is standing face to face with a 
terrible alternative, involving, as the conse- 
quences of its choice, the approving smile 
or the condemning frown of Almighty God. 
This is Moral* Agency, pure and simple, 
with all its necessary conditions. The soul, 
in the exercise of its sovereign functions, sits 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 35 

upon the throne of judgment; while the 
flesh, on the one hand, pleads for sensuous, 
degrading indulgence, and the spirit, on the 
other hand, moved by influences from above, 
pleads for righteousness, truth, purity, virtue. 
"The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and 
the spirit against the flesh, and these are 
contrary the one to the other." Thus situa- 
ted, thus influenced, the soul makes its fear- 
ful decision, with character as the imme- 
diate and eternal destiny as the ultimate 
result. Such choice is possible only to a 
moral agent. Verily, this is the true man, 
God's man, fully competent for all the de- 
mands of his Creator. 

CERTAIN PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE. 

Respecting certain passages of scripture, 
of which there is a very large number, that 
attribute intellectual processes, emotional 
experiences, and volitional functions to the 
spirit, they are to be disposed of in the same 
way as we dispose of the passages, of which 
there is also a large number, that attribute 
the same functions to the flesh. The ear 
hears, is attentive, seeketh knowledge, is 



36 Soul, Body and Spirit. 

obedient, understands, receives the word of 
the Lord. The eye sees, perceives, waiteth 
for the twilight, gave witness, is bountiful, 
mocketh, is satisfied or not satisfied, doth 
spare or not spare, mourns, offends. The 
mouth tastes, speaks wisdom, speaketh lies, 
is froward, is wholesome or perverse, is de- 
ceitful, unruly. The hands shed innocent 
blood, and the feet run to evil. Thus the 
various members of the body are accredited 
with nearly all the intellectual activities of 
the soul; yet, everybody knows that these 
organs are no more responsible for a single 
one of them than the bludgeon, in the hand 
of a highwayman, is responsible for the 
death of the unfortunate traveler who is 
smitten to the earth by it. Thus it is, also, 
with the spirit. It faints, revives, is troubled, 
is sad, is sorrowful, is joyful, is willing or re- 
bellious, is hasty or patient, is haughty or 
humble, is steadfast or not steadfast, is 
faithful, excellent, dilligent, fervent, broken, 
contrite. Yet, all these, like those men- 
tioned above, are the functions of the soul, 
not of the spirit. 

This remarkable analogy, the use of the 



Soul, Body and Spirit. 37 

same trope, metonomy, in both cases, to 
express acts, experiences and functions of 
the soul — in the one case as related to the 
material world, and in the other as related 
to the spiritual, is another evidence, of great 
force and weight, in support of our hypo- 
thesis that there is now a spiritual body, as 
well as a temporal or material, and that the 
soul lives in and uses either or both, in the 
alternatives of life, as occasions may afford 
opportunities; and that its experiences are 
according to its choices, influenced also by 
its environments. 

If this is not the ideal man, as he came 
from the hand of his Creator, and was de- 
clared to be ''very good," we challenge the 
world, especially those who refuse to accept 
our theory, to construct one, who shall 
more completely meet the demands of the 
situation, and for each particular of whose 
make-up a better reason can be found than 
we have given. 



LECTURE III. 



THE FALL. 

The foreseen (not necessary) result (not 
consequence) of the creation of moral agents 
actually occurred. Man fell from his first 
estate. Using his power of freedom of 
choice, he chose to disobey his Creator, his 
King, his God. Respecting the nature of 
this transaction, great men, good men, have 
differed widely. It is a matter of sincere 
congratulation, to-day, as we believe, that 
those differences are gradually but rapidly 
disappearing. This is due largely, if not 
wholly, to a better understanding of the na- 
ture of moral agency than the world has 
ever had before. In this lecture we propose 
to examine, in the light thus shed upon 
them, the facts respecting this fall, as they 
are made known to us in the scriptures. 

i. Our first inquiry will be respecting 
the moral condition of Adam and Eve, in 
the garden of Eden, as they came from the 
hand of their Creator, before they had exer- 



The Fall 39 

cised a single choice, of which moral char- 
acter could be predicated. They were fur- 
nished by their Creator, as we have seen 
(Lecture I.), with the endowments neces- 
sary to moral action; namely, intelligence 
and free will. They were surrounded by 
circumstances that furnished the necessary 
alternative of choice. The fair fruit of 
''the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil" hung temptingly before their eyes. 
No alternative involving a moral choice had 
ever been presented before. No character 
had been formed. The wily serpent, en- 
dued with Satanic power to charm and de- 
ceive, declared to them, "Thou shalt not 
surely die." The moment of decision had 
arrived. The momentous choice to obey or 
disobey the command, "Thou shalt not eat 
thereof" awaits only the action of the will. 
What was their moral state, at that inter- 
esting moment? 

The answer usually given to this inquiry 
is, "God created them holy." This is a 
great and fundamental error; and like every 
other error has been the source of incalcu- 
lable mischief. God never created an in- 



4 o The Fall. 

telligent being holy. From the very nature 
of holiness, as an attribute of a moral agent, 
that is an impossibility. 

Holiness is a quality, or attribute, of 
character acquired by obedience. They 
were not holy for they had performed no 
act of obedience. Nor were they sinful, for 
they had, as yet, disobeyed no mandate. 
They were children, in development, that 
had just reached the moment, at which ac- 
countability commences. They were sim- 
ply innocent. (Why could not theologians 
have discovered that a thousand years ago? 
How much of error and confusion and strife 
it would have prevented). 

Should the question arise, Was there, at 
this time, any natural inclination to either 
holiness or sin? the answer must be an un- 
equivocal No. In their constitution there 
could be no bias; and heredity had not even 
commenced its work. It was just as natural, 
just as easy, for them to do right as wrong. 

2. Our next inquiry is respecting the 
temptation; and our first postulate respect- 
ing it is, Temptation is impossible where 
there is no alternative. The necessity of an 



The Fall. 41 

alternative, in order to the development of 
moral character, has been clearly shown in 
Lecture I. The alternative, in this case, is 
furnished by the prohibitory command, Gen. 
iii. 16, 17, "Of every tree in the garden 
thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of 
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 
not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die." 

At this point in our inquiries, it should 
be stated that, while this transaction clearly 
illustrates the nature of an alternative, and 
is recorded in order to make that nature evi- 
dent to all, we are not to suppose that no 
other form of alternative would have served 
the same purpose. From the temptation of 
our Saviour we may learn that at least three 
kinds of alternative may be employed, to 
test the loyalty of the soul to its God; 
namely, the appetites of the flesh, the am- 
bitions of the soul, and presumption. It is 
evident, also, that these tests may be em- 
ployed in almost innumerable forms. One 
form, however, is sufficient as such test; for 
he who disregards the mandate of his Sover- 
eign in a single instance makes his lack of 



42 The Fall. 

loyalty evident. . Whether innocent or holy 
before, he is a sinner now. 

3. The transgression. They disobeyed 
the command of their God. This was sin. 
"Sin is the transgression of law." 1 John 
iii. 4. 

4. The consequences. With the very 
purpose to pluck and eat that forbidden 
fruit, innocence took its flight. As soon as 
the act was committed, a terrible conscious- 
ness of guilt, fearfulness, uneasiness, shame, 
horror, seized upon them. This was con- 
science. They had shown themselves un- 
worthy of the confidence and approving 
smile of their best friend, their Creator, 
their God. What could now be done? The 
dreadful act could not be recalled. Despair, 
dark and dreadful, hovered over them as a 
cloud; surrounded, enveloped them as mid- 
night. When they heard the sound of the 
approaching footsteps < ' of the Lord God, 
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, 
the man and his wife hid themselves from 
the presence of the Lord God amongst the 
trees of the garden." No one can imagine 
their feelings, at that moment, who has not 



The Fall. 43 

known, in the very depths of his soul, the 
awful meaning of the words ' ' condemned 
already. " 

5. This loss of God's favor is called 
death. It was the execution of the pre- 
dicted penalty, "In the day thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die." The pro- 
priety of giving this name, death, to the 
condition into which they brought them- 
selves by the foolish and wicked act of diso- 
bedience they performed, will be apparent 
to any one who will give it a little careful, 
close thought. The Psalmist says (xxx. 5), 
"In his favor is life." If the favor of God 
is life, the loss of that favor must be death. 
This is the exact concept of these two words, 
wherever found in the scriptures, used in a 
spiritual sense. Life is the favor of God; 
eternal life is the favor of God extended 
through eternal ages. Death is the loss of 
that favor; eternal death is alienation from 
God perpetuated, by the continued, persist- 
ent choice of the rebellious spirit, through 
the ages of eternity. 

Misled by an erroneous interpretation of 
Romans v. 12, "By one man sin entered 



44 The Fall 

into the world, and death by sin," many 
have supposed the death here predicted in- 
cluded temporal death, the death of the 
body; and that the mortality of the race is 
due to that transgression, and is a part of 
the penalty. Common, almost universal, 
as these opinions are, we must here record 
our dissent from them, and state our reasons 
for our dissent. 

We firmly believe that Adam was just as 
mortal before he sinned as he was after- 
wards. Whether it was possible for him to 
protract his earthly life indefinitely, by eat- 
ing of the fruit of "the tree of life," we will 
not stop now to discuss. Our reasons for 
believing that he was mortal are the following: 

(i). This transgression did not bring 
physical death into the world. It is impos- 
sible to so interpret the language of the 
apostle, above quoted. The science of geo- 
logy furnishes evidence, just as indisputable 
as the inspired word of God, that death had 
prevailed over animal life for unknown ages 
before the earth was in condition to be oc- 
cupied as a residence for human beings. 
Eleven miles in thickness of the earth's 



The Fall. 45 

crust was made of the remains of animals 
that died ages before God said, "Let us 
make man"; and they are to be found to- 
day incorporated into some of the great 
mountain ranges of the earth. This is a 
fact so well known that a single citation of 
evidence to support it is unnecessary. 

(2). The body of Adam was made of the 
same 4 ' dust of the ground " as the bodies of 
the dead animals, whose remains, at that 
very time, he was treading beneath his feet; 
the same as that of which every mortal body, 
whether of brute or man, has been ' 'formed" 
from the introduction of animal life into the 
world unto the present time. Why should 
the body of man, whether in innocence, 
holiness, or sin, be less perishable than 
that of the brute, which is made of the same 
material, the same chemical elements? It 
is the nature of everything that is formed of 
matter, and endowed with life, whether it 
be animal or vegetable, to grow until it 
reaches a state of maturity, then descend 
the scale of life, by regular degradations, 
until life becomes extinct, and "dust re- 
turns to the earth as it was." 



46 The Fall. 



Suppose that, in one of the great seismic 
upheavals of the earth's crust, that must 
have been very frequent at that period, the 
earth had opened beneath his feet, and 
Adam had been swallowed up in the chasm, 
and crushed to powder between the tum- 
bling rocks, would it not have killed him? 
It is no answer to say that God would not 
have permitted such a catastrophy. To 
admit that the Providential arm was neces- 
sary to protect him is to admit his destructi- 
bility. Being the sovereign of his own 
choices, suppose he had determined to eat 
nothing, would he not have starved to 
death, just as you or I would? The suppo- 
sition that he was not mortal is in itself an 
absurdity. 

(3). The warning given them was, "In 
the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt 
surely die." The meaning of many a pro- 
phecy has been clear only in its fulfilment. 
The only death that followed the transgres- 
sion, "in the day" of its occurrence, was 
spiritual death, the loss of the favor of God. 
This may have hastened, undoubtedly did 
hasten, the dissolution of the body, but not 



The Fall. 47 

to any great extent in the case of Adam, or 
of any of the antediluvians, of whom we 
have any record. Heredity had not done 
its fatal work at that time as it is doing it 
to-day. 

(4). The reference to the literal render- 
ing of the Hebrew, ' ' dying thou shalt die, " 
has no force whatever. The usage of that 
Hebrew idiom is solely that of emphasizing 
the fact expressed by the finite verb. It is 
correctly translated, "Thou shalt surely 
die"; and emphasizing the fact of dying 
must emphasize also the time of its occur- 
rence. "To-day" does not mean anytime 
within a thousand years. The death pre- 
dicted came upon them at once. Com- 
mentators agree that its literal fulfilment 
was spiritual death, but usually assume that 
the seeds of decay and dissolution were at 
the same time sown in his body. This as- 
sumption is based upon the fact that he did 
die; a fact much more naturally accounted 
for on the ground that he was always 
mortal. 

(5). Again, it is said that "Dust thou 
art, and unto dust shalt thou return," was a 



48 The Fall. 

part of the penalty pronounced upon Adam 
for his transgression. From this interpre- 
tation I must also be permitted to dissent. 
Read the whole verse. Gen. iii. 19, "In 
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, 
till thou return unto the ground; for dust 
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 
That little word "till" manifestly takes 
what follows it out from under the curse 
that precedes it, and refers it to the natural 
order of events that would have occurred, if 
no sin had been committed. That particu- 
lar curse would rest upon him, until the 
close of his natural life. Then follows the 
statement, without any reference to the 
curse, given only as the reason why, in the 
nature of his constitution, he would and 
must "return unto the ground; for dust 
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 
A careful study of Rom. v. 12-25, wm " a l so 
show that the more natural, if not the only 
consistent, interpretation of that whole 
passage is found on the hypothesis that 
spiritual death only is referred to. The 
death mentioned is the death that came 
"through sin; and so death, passed unto all 



The Fall. 49 

men, for that all sinned." That spiritual 
death was the direct result of sin is not dis- 
puted; that physical death was, is contra- 
dicted by the very constitution of the human 
body. " Prove all things; hold fast that 
which is good." 



LECTURE IV. 



LAW. 

This is God's world, God's universe. 
"The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness 
thereof; the world and they that dwell 
therein." He is sole proprietor and sole 
manager of the whole: the material and the 
immaterial; the animate and the inanimate; 
the intelligent and that which has no intel- 
ligence; the mortal and the immortal; the 
body, the soul and the spirit; the holy and 
the sinful; all are in his hands, subject to 
his government, creatures of his care. He 
is working the whole, managing the whole, 
with a definite aim and purpose, in the ex- 
ercise of his own judgment as to what is 
best for each and for all; and with a free- 
dom, independence, sovereignty, that is well 
illustrated by the farmer upon his farm, the 
mechanic in his shop, the merchant in his 
store, the teacher in the school-room, and 
the mother in the midst of her family and 
household affairs. Viewing God thus, seated 



Law. 51 

upon his throne, at the head of the universe, 
the living, planning, guiding, controlling 
Manager, Director, Sovereign, of the whole, 
it is evident to the most casual observer and 
thinker that he must have many laws. 

Of God's laws, there are three kinds, 
three distinct and separate systems: physi- 
cal laws, ceremonial laws, and moral laws. 
These three systems of laws differ radically 
in their nature and object. We shall treat 
them separately, and in the order presented 
above. 

I. Physical laws. These are (1) laws 
that seem to inhere in matter itself; and 
according to which the material universe is 
organized. As to their nature and practical 
utilities in human affairs, they are discussed 
at length and in particular in scientific works 
on Physics. The concept of physical law 
should include (2) every case where conse- 
quences necessarily follow antecedents, the 
relation being that of cause and effect. Our 
treatment of this class of laws will refer 
chiefly to their moral bearings. In this line 
of inquiry, it is important to notice the 
following: 



52 



Law. 



i. Physical laws, whether considered as 
pertaining to events in the material, mental 
or spiritual world, are linked directly with 
the divine will, and are constant. Under 
similar circumstances or conditions, similar 
results may always be relied upon. Water, 
at a temperature of 3 2° Farenheit, with a 
downward tendency, will freeze; and ice, at 
the same temperature with an upward ten- 
dency, will melt. Mental inactivity will re- 
sult in mental weakness. The wages of sin 
is death. These are examples of the con- 
stancy of physical law. They will always 
be true, whether in this world or any other. 

2. The material universe is undoubtedly 
an immense system of object lessons; each 
law and each fact pertaining to matter cor- 
responding with and intended to teach a 
fact or law pertaining to spiritual conditions 
and life. There is a very important sense 
in which Pope's view of the relations of God 
to the material universe is true, when he 
says, 

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
Whose body Nature is, and God the soul." 



Law. 53; 

With this view we conceive that a mote, 
a planet, a sun, a system of material worlds, 
each and all are as subservient to the will of 
God as my hand or my tongue is subservient 
to my will. Whatever may be the laws to 
which each mote or each world may be or- 
dinarily subject, moved by the will of God 
it forgets them all, and leaps from its wonted 
course, as a railroad train leaps from its ac- 
customed track when a sufficient obstruction 
lies in its way. He who made matter and 
the laws of matter is superior both to his 
work and to the laws that regulate it. 

Nor is this power to work against ' *. the 
laws of nature," as they are frequently 
called, found in God alone. We possess 
that power, and' are continually using it._ 
Thus, and thus only, do we employ the 
forces of Nature to supplement our own 
strength in any mechanical operation. 
While laws may be constant, the forces that 
may be brought to bear upon or against 
them are variable. These forces may or 
may not be sufficient to counteract and over- 
come the laws. 

The force with which any portion of mat- 



54 Law. 

ter is attracted to the earth is called its 
weight. The force that may be exerted by 
a man in raising or attempting to raise a 
given portion of matter from the earth is 
called his strength. Now the strength of 
my arm may or may not be sufficient to 
raise one hundred pounds from the earth. 
If it is sufficient, I am able to overcome the 
law of attraction, as pertaining to that body. 
This shows that the laws of matter are not 
invincible. They may be overcome and 
rendered ineffectual; or they may be ob- 
structed by an opposition not sufficient to 
overcome them, and their force employed 
to subserve the will of man, as when we use 
wind, water, steam, electricity, or the attrac- 
tion of gravitation itself, to* work machinery, 
propel vehicles of travel or transportation, 
convey messages, or for any other purpose. 
These are the laws referred to, when peo- 
ple talk of the impossibility of God acting, 
except in accordance with his laws. As this 
is a very great and very damaging error, it 
is worth our while to give it some attention. 
Many, among whom may be found Christian 
people, and Christian ministers too, inquire 



Law. 55 

in this wise: ''How can such an event as 
men call ' special providence ' occur ? Will 
God disregard his own laws ? Can I ask 
him to set aside a just penalty, that he has 
himself attached, as a natural consequence, 
to a righteous law, that I have broken ? 
How can such a thing be ? In this way God 
would undeify himself, abrogate his own 
statutes, destroy his own goverment. 
Prayer, in such cases, is not piety but pre- 
sumption." 

Now, what is the matter with people 
who talk thus ? The error into which they 
have fallen may be a very natural one, but 
it is very mischievous. That error is the 
assumption that God is limited in his action 
by the laws here referred to — his physical 
laws. The remedy for this error is the fact 
stated above, that physical laws are not in- 
vincible. As regards the relation of a law- 
giver to laws of his own enactment, bear 
this maxim always in mind, The law-giver is 
superior to his laws. Object lessons that 
teach this fact are abundant on all hands. 
They are found in every organized system of 
labor in the world. The farmer has laws 



56 Law. 

for the management of his farm. The work- 
men in his employ are expected to conform 
their labor to these laws, unless excused 
from doing so, and he may generally observe 
them himself; but when the interests of the 
farm, the successful working of his plans, 
requires it, he disregards them utterly and 
gives new orders to his workmen. Thus he 
changes or disregards his own laws, accord- 
ing to the dictates of his judgment and the 
exigencies of occasions. The same is true 
of the mechanic, the merchant, the builder, 
the manager of a corporation, anybody who 
has workmen under him, and who says to 
one "Go, and he goeth, and to another, 
Come, and he cometh." This, in fact, is the 
meaning of the mysterious remark made by 
the Centurion to Jesus, Matt. viii. 8, 9. 
' ' Say the word, and my servant shall be 
healed. For I also am a man under au- 
thority, having under myself soldiers; and I 
say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to an- 
other, Come, and he cometh; and to my 
servant, Do this, and he doeth it." What 
connection has this remark with his request 
that he should come and heal his servant? 



Law. 57 

His meaning is, The forces of Nature, the 
diseases with which men are afflicted, are 
subject to your will and word, just as ser- 
vants who are uider my authority are 
subject to my command. The forces of 
Nature are your servants, as these men are 
mine. 

Perhaps the best illustrations of this prin- 
ciple and fact are found in the school-room 
and in the family. The teacher has many 
rules, and strictest observance of them is es- 
sential. Order is of first importance; and 
prompt, unquestioned obedience cannot be 
dispensed with. Still the teacher is superior to 
his law; and the fact is so fully recognized that 
no pupil hesitates, at any time when neces- 
sity or convenience requires, to ask release 
from obedience to any law; nor do the other 
pupils gape with wonder, when such request 
is granted. Precisely the same thing is true 
in the family. The numerous regulations 
that are necessary for the management of 
her multifarious and complicated household 
duties do not interfere with the ability of the 
mother to hear the petitions of her children, 
or of her servants, and perform acts of spec- 



58 Law. 

ial providence for them, whenever the wel- 
fare of the family requires it. 

All parental interests and functions be- 
long to God, and what did Jesus say? " If 
ye know how to give good gifts unto your 
children, how much more shall your Father, 
who is in heaven, give good things to them 
that ask him?" The laws of Nature, as they 
are called, like the ordinary regulations of a 
family, are, under ordinary circumstances, 
adapted to and sufficient for the occasions 
that arise under them; but, when exigencies 
arise, and they prove inadequate, the higher 
interests of the souls of men call for the 
special providences of God. The law-giver 
is superior to his laws. Neither has God 
given to men powers that he does not pos- 
sess himself. If men are superior to their 
laws, God is surely superior to his. 

This view of the providence of God fur- 
nishest the only rational and consistent ex- 
planation of miracles. Instead of being 
"performed according to laws with which 
we are unacquainted," they are performed 
in accordance with no law at all. They are 
simply single instances, where God has per- 



Law. 59 

formed an act, brought about an event, 
directly by the fiat of his Sovereign Will, re- 
gardless of, sometimes contrary to and in 
defiance of, his well established laws. The 
scriptures are full of examples that are thus, 
and only thus, to be accounted for. 

What was the fiat, ' ' Let there be 
light?" What was the flood? the building of 
the ark and the voluntary resort of the wild 
beasts of the earth to its sheltering apart- 
ments? What was the destruction of 
Sodom? the sparing and exaltation of Jo- 
seph and Moses? the burning bush? the 
giving of the law on Mt. Sinai? the manna 
in the wilderness? the healing by the bra- 
zen serpent? the heaping up of the waters 
of the Jordan? the tumbling down of the 
walls of Jerico? the fire from heaven that 
consumed the sacrifice of Elijah? the trans- 
lation without death of Enoch and Elijah? 
the rescue of Daniel from the lions and 
of the faithful three from the seven-fold 
heated furnace? the delivery of Peter from 
prison and of Paul from the bite of the poi- 
sonous reptile? and the hundreds of other 
similar events that transpired in those days, 



6o Law. 

and the thousands that have occurred since 
and are daily occurring in the experiences of 
God's people? what were they all? what are 
they now? but examples of the Will of God, 
meeting the necessity of a single case, by 
the exercise of his sovereign right, authority 
and power? THE LAW-MAKER IS SU- 
PERIOR TO HIS LAWS. Nothing can 
can be more manifest to one who thinks^ 
observes, and dares exercise the reasoning 
powers with which his Creator has endowed 
him than that every molecule of matter and 
every immense globe is just as obedient to 
the Will of God as my hand or my foot, 
when in a healthy condition, is to my will. 
Such is the relation of the Will of God to. 
matter and to the laws of matter. Physical 
law is the immanent will of God. From all 
these facts it is evident that God is working 
out moral problems and not physical. The 
material universe was not made for itself. 
It has no value only as a means to moral 
ends. Hence it is that all its laws and in- 
terests yield, stand aside, when the higher 
demands and interests of moral, or sentient 
creatures of any grade require it. When 



Law. 61 

we speak of " the good of being," only sen- 
tient beings are included. Inanimate mat- 
ter, matter that is destitute of animal life, 
knows nothing of either good or bad. 

2. Ceremonial laws. These may have 
their origin in the Will of God or the will of 
man. They may be enjoined by authorita- 
tive enactment or by common consent or 
custom. They may pertain to religious 
worship, social intercourse, courts of justice, 
and many other relations of human life. 
We shall consider them only so far as they 
may be the laws of God; that is, laws 
divinely enacted for the observance of his 
people. 

Under the old dispensation, certain days 
were to be observed sacredly, in commemo- 
ration of important events; and certain sac- 
rifices were required, some of them as grate- 
ful acknowledgements of divine blessings, 
others as typical of the great atoning sacri- 
fice that was to be made in the fullness of 
time. Under the new dispensation, ceremo- 
nial laws, enacted by divine authority, are 
few. I find only the ordinances of baptism 
and the Lord's supper, unless marriage 



62 Law. 

should also be included. All other require- 
ments of the Christian religion come under 
the head of Moral laws. 

The observance or non-observance of 
ceremonial laws may be ethical, not on ac- 
count of the thing required, but because it 
is required. Our relations to God require 
that we respect his will, regardless of the 
thing he may have commanded. He has a 
reason for every command he has given; 
hence, when we cannot discover what that 
reason is, confidence iu his wisdom, and 
in his devotion to our welfare, as well as un- 
questioning loyalty to his Sovereignty, 
should prompt obedience; and neglect or re- 
fusal to recognize this obligation must be 
sin, however trivial the thing commanded 
may appear to us. When the Savior would 
wash his disciples' feet, Peter, undoubtedly 
feeling that the act, on the part of his Lord, 
was quite too menial, said, "Lord, thou 
shalt never wash my feet." The reply of 
Jesus was most remarkable, as indicating 
the fact that it matters not how trivial may 
be the act required, refusal to perform it is 
rebellion against the divine authority, and 



Law. 63 

disloyalty to the government of God. "If 
I wash thee not," said he, "thou hast no 
part with me." This was a serious state of 
things, and Peter realized it. He did not 
wish to imperil the salvation of his soul for 
so trivial a matter as refusing to permit his 
Lord and Master to wash his feet; and with 
most humble submission he cried out, ' 'Lord, 
not my feet only, but also my hands and my 
head." Thus a ceremonial law may also 
have indirect connection with moral charac- 
ter. 

Ceremonial laws are symbolical. They 
employ a formal service to represent and 
impress spiritual ideas. Sometimes their 
purpose is the commemoration of an event 
that has already transpired; sometimes it is 
to symbolize an event, of which it is also 
prophetic; and sometimes both of these ob- 
jects are included. The keeping of the pass- 
over illustrates the three ideas. It com- 
memorates the sparing of the Israelites, 
when the destroying angle went through the 
land of Egypt, and slew the first-born of 
every family; it symbolized the salvation of 
believers and the destruction of unbelievers, 



64 Law. 

under the gospel dispensation; and it was 
prophetic of the atonement that was to be 
made by the suffering and death of the 
' ' Lamb of God" on Calvary. 

Ceremonial laws are also temporary. 
When the end is fulfilled for which they 
were intended, they cease to be obligatory. 
Christ fulfilled the ceremonial laws given to 
Moses, hence his followers never observe 
them. They are no longer obligatory. It 
is to this Jesus refers when he says, Matt, 
v. 17, " Think not that I came to destroy 
the law or the prophets: I came not to de- 
stroy but to fulfill. 

3. Moral laws. The system of laws 
with which we have most to do, in the dis- 
cussion of theological questions, is what are 
commonly called moral laws. This does not 
mean that these laws are moral or immoral; 
but that they are of such a nature that obe- 
dience to them cannot be refused without 
incurring guilt. When written, they define 
the duties that intelligent beings, moral 
agents, owe to one another, to themselves, 
and to the animal kingdom in general. This 
system of laws differs so widely from those 



Law. 65 

we have been considering, that very few, 
even of those "who seem to be pillars," 
have really apprehended their nature. They 
relate entirely to intelligent beings, who are 
able to comprehend the nature of a moral 
obligation. They are not the enactments 
of a Sovereign, nor are they established by 
the concurrent voice of a community, a na- 
tion, or the entire assemblage of all the in- 
telligences in the universe. Yet they are 
uniform and universal. Wherever intelli- 
gent beings may be found, there these obli- 
gations exist. They are no respecter of 
persons. They are just as binding upon 
God and angels as upon men. They exist 
in the nature of things, have always been 
and will always be the same as they now are. 
They are immutable and eternal. No au- 
thority can abrogate them, no enactment 
set them aside. As they do not originate in 
a Sovereign Will, nor by any governmental 
authority, they are in no way or degree sub- 
ject to any interference by any power in 
heaven or on earth. 

Do you ask, Whence do they come? and 

how do they exist? I answer, they arise out. 
5 



66 Law. 

of the relations of intelligent beings to one 
another. If there were but one sentient 
and intelligent being in the universe, there 
could be no moral law. If there were no 
sentient beings except brutes, there could be 
no moral law. Every obligation of man to 
God, of God to man, of man to man, or of 
man to brute, must arise directly and spon- 
taneously out of the relations that each sus- 
tains to each and to all the rest; and perfect 
conformity, obedience, to these obligations, 
laws, on the part of those between whom 
the relations exist, is absolutely, immutably 
and eternally necessary to their happiness 
and welfare. 

As the offspring of God, man owes alle- 
giance, obedience, to him, as his Father, and 
his Sovereign Ruler. This is the prompting 
of love, as well as of a wise regard on the 
part of man, for his own happiness and well- 
being. These are the relations of man to 
God. The relations of God to man are 
those of a parent to a child, a King to his 
subjects who are dependent upon his provi- 
dence for their existence and for the supply 
of every want of their natures. He is also 



Law. 67 

related to them as the Infinite to the finite, 
the strong to the weak, the wise to the igno- 
rant, the one in whose hands are all the 
resources of the universe to those who have 
no resources of any kind. These obliga- 
tions rest upon him because he is a moral 
agent. A single instance of disregard or 
neglect of the welfare of one of his intelli- 
gent subjects would convict him of sin, and 
bring upon him self-condemnation and the 
condemnation of every intelligent creature 
in the universe. Hence we may well believe 
that ' ' No good thing will he deny from them 
that walk uprightly." On the same princi- 
ple, every sentient creature, even the most 
insignificant insect, is the object of his care; 
and ' ' not a sparrow falls to the ground 
without his notice." 

The relations of each man to each and 
all his fellows constitute the foundation of 
the obligations of each to all the rest. 
These obligations are found in the fact that 
the welfare of each of my fellows is as im- 
portant to him and to all the rest as my 
welfare is to me and to all the rest. Every 
individual of our race is dependent upon 



68 Law. 

the rest of the- race, as well as upon God y 
for his or her highest' well-being. Thus 
each is made to care for all and all to care 
for each. This is the moral law. Con- 
formity to this law is the highest standard 
of human life, and promotes the most per- 
fect condition of human welfare. This is 
the doctrine of both the first and second 
commandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself." Thus " Love 
is the fulling of the law." It is also the 
doctrine of that wonderful paradox, the 
most extraordinary that ever fell from lips 
of clay, "He that seeketh to save his life 
shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for 
my sake shall find it." In the language of 
experience, as it appears in all the affairs 
of men, this may be paraphrased thus: 
Selfishness defeats the end at which it aims, 
but benevolence secures, without direct 
effort, the end at which selfishness aims in 
vain. It is found also in the language of 
the apostle, iCor. x. 33, "Not seeking 
mine own profit, but the profit of the 
many." This should be the aim, the pur- 



Law. 69 

pose, the constant effort of every person of 
our race; and he who ignores this law, and 
refuses to accept it, and conform his whole 
life, in every wish, in every motive, in every 
act, to this obligation, stands convicted of 
sin, before his fellows, before his God, and 
before the bar of his own conscience. This 
is hell, as a condition of consciousness, 
whether in this life, or in the life to come. 
Are these the laws of God ? They are no 
more the laws of God than they are the 
laws of men and of angels. They grow 
spontaneously out of the relations of each 
intelligence to each and all the rest. No 
personal Sovereign has enacted them; and 
no power in the universe can either annul 
or change them. They are called the laws 
of God, because God, in fulfilment of the 
obligation resting upon him as Father, 
Sovereign, the Infinite, the All-wise, to 
seek and promote the highest happiness 
and well-being of his offspring, creatures, 
subjects, has promulged them, published 
them abroad, that we might know them, 
and be without excuse, if we disregard them. 
Apropos of this thought is the significant 



70 Law. 

fact that the Hebrew word torah, trans- 
lated law, signifies instruction. 

God has ordained physical law by the 
immanence of his own sovereign will; he is 
also the author of certain ceremonial laws; 
but he has not enacted, nor even originated 
moral laws. These have their origin, even 
their suggestion, in relations. They grow 
from the intuitive affirmation of the reason 
of every moral agent in the universe, that 
rights may not with impunity, be violated 
by either God or angels or men. They 
may be called the laws of God only in re- 
cognition of the fact that he has made them 
known to us, and assured us that they must 
be regarded or evil consequences must 
follow: 

This should be the understanding of 
monarchs and legislators. Their business 
as law-givers is not to make laws, except 
ceremonial laws. The only legislative au- 
thority with which they are invested, outside 
of ceremonial laws, is to ascertain what are 
the rights of their subjects, in their various 
relations to their sovereign and to each 
other, and require their observance. In the 



Law. 71 

observance of these rights, each and all will 
find their highest well-being. Civil law is a 
branch of moral law. 

The same is true in the family, the school, 
and wherever the authority of one person 
over another is recognized. Capital and 
labor may be perfectly harmonized on this 
principle, and no other. When this princi- 
ple is fully understood and fully obeyed, by 
ruler and subject, by employer and em- 
ploye, the millennium will be not a dream 
but a reality; and every recognition of this 
principle, and every effort to realize it, in 
the affairs of daily life, is a step in that 
direction. 

This is also the key-note to a correct 
life, the key-note to a Christian life. It 
was sounded by Jesus when he said, ' ' I 
came not to be ministered unto but to min- 
ister;" by Paul when he said, respecting 
Jesus, ' ' He who was rich, for our sakes 
became poor, that we, through his poverty, 
might be rich;" and again by Paul when he 
said, "Ourselves your servants for Jesus' 
sake;" and again, "Not seeking mine own 
profit, but the profit of the many." This is 



72 Law. 

the condition of things in heaven; and full 
and cheerful conformity to this principle 
will make any place in the universe heaven. 

In the light of the above, we see how 
utterly unfounded and false is the assump- 
tion that the "Ten Commandments" were 
included in the law that was so fulfilled in 
Christ that it was no longer binding upon 
any body, Jew or Gentile. From the classi- 
fication of laws, as given above, it is readily 
seen that such fulfilment could refer only to 
the ceremonial law. Neither of the other 
kinds of law could be included, because 
neither of them is capable of abrogation. 
Physical law must exist so long as effects 
follow causes; and moral law must be obli- 
gatory, in all its particulars, without any 
possible shadow of change, just so long as 
moral agents exist. In any particular rela- 
tion it is the same, yesterday, to-day, and 
forever. The only question, then, as touch- 
ing the decalogue, is whether it consists of 
ceremonial or moral precepts, whether they 
are edicts of ceremonial observances, or 
obligations that grow out of relations. 

On examining the "commandments" 



Law. 73 

with reference to this point, no difference 
of opinion is likely to arise respecting any 
of them except the fourth. That there is 
something of the ceremonial in this, we 
freely admit. The seventh day was chosen 
as the particular day of the seven to be ob- 
served, "for in six days the Lord made 
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in 
them is, and rested on the seventh day; 
wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, 
and hallowed it." This, however, was not 
the whole of it, nor the important part of it. 
If there had been no necessity for a Sabbath 
day, no day would have been named for its 
observance. The necessity of both labor 
and rest underlies the commandment, and 
that necessity is found in the relations of 
man to himself, his fellow man, and his 
God. Let us examine each of these points. 
I. There is, perhaps, no physiological 
fact more clearly and firmly established than 
that the bodily welfare of a laborer demands 
that each seventh day be devoted to quiet 
and rest. Both mind and muscle, that are 
subjected habitually to severe taxation, day 
after day, must have one day in seven for 



74 Law. 

recuperation. We admit that it looks para- 
doxical, but experience has often proved its 
truth, that more work can be done in six 
days than in seven. Hence, rest on the sev- 
enth day is just as imperative, for one's wel- 
fare, as labor during the other six. 

2. Consideration of the welfare of others, 
in every community, and of the world at 
large, imposes upon each member the obli- 
gation to observe the day of rest, and cir- 
cumstantially the same day; because no one 
can disregard the precept without infringing 
upon the quiet, the repose, the rights of 
others. The moral law requires that the 
welfare of all (domestic animals included) 
must be regarded by each. On this point 
we find a very significant passage in Exodus 
xxiii. 12, "Six days thou shalt do thy 
work, and on the seventh day thou shalt 
rest, that thine ox and thine ass may rest, 
and the son of thy handmaid and the stran- 
ger may be refreshed." 

3, The most sacred of all our obligations 
to "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
holy" is found in our relation to God him 
self. The idea is clearly expressed in Exo- 



Law. 75 

dus xxxi. 13, 14, " Verily ye shall keep my 
Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and 
you throughout your generation, that ye may 
know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify 
you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore, 
for it is holy unto you." The history of 
the world shows that the human race ' ' did 
not like to retain God in their knowledge." 
Knowing that this would be the disposition 
of men, God so constituted man that a peri- 
odical day of rest would be necessary for his 
welfare, and then gave him this command- 
ment, that they might through its influence 
be helped to remember him, and keep the 
day sacredly, " keep it holy," as his day, not 
theirs. Hence he instructed them, Isaiah 
lviii. 13, "If -thou turn away thy foot from 
the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my 
holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, 
and shalt honor it, not doing thine own ways 
nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speak- 
ing thine own words; then shalt thou delight 
thyself in the Lord, and I will make thee to 
ride upon the high places of the earth; for 
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 
For this reason, also, God has ordained 



76 Law. 

this day as- a day of worship. Lev. xxvi. 
2, "Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and rever- 
ence my sanctuary;" xxiii. 3, "The seventh 
day is the Sabbath of rest, and holy convo- 
cation." Ezek. xlvi. 1, "The gate of the 
inner court that looketh toward the east shall 
be shut the six working days, but on the Sab- 
bath it shall be opened. " Thus rest and wor- 
ship are required of men, not ceremonially, 
but for moral reasons; especially that men 
may remember their dependence upon God 
and their obligation, for their own physical 
and moral welfare, to reverence, adore, and 
love him. 

The above discussion shows just where 
the falacy lies of those who contend so earn- 
estly, and so conscientiously, that the Jew- 
ish Sabbath should still be observed. We 
have admitted that there is a ceremonial 
feature in the commandment. The day 
which the Jews were required to observe for 
rest and worship was the seventh day of the 
week, according to their reckoning, in com- 
memoration of the day on which figuratively, 
God rested from the work of creation. 
While the command to observe a Sabbath 



Law. 77 

is founded deep and solid on relations that 
make it a moral precept immutable, the day 
selected was a memorial day, subject to be 
changed or abrogated entirely. Hence, when 
the greater work of redemption was com- 
pleted, and the ceremonial law nullified, the 
necessity of a Sabbath of rest and worship 
being the same as from the beginning, the 
most natural and appropriate thing imagin- 
able was that the first day, as a memorial of 
the resurrection, should be appointed of 
God as the day on which such rest and wor- 
ship should occur. 

Apropos of this thought, let me here re- 
cord a suggestion that has often impressed 
me deeply and solemnly respecting this 
change. No one is unaware of the deep- 
rooted prejudice that is formed by long-es- 
tablished habit, even when that habit is not 
sanctioned by divine authority. That such 
habit should be a thousand fold stronger, 
when sanctioned by divine authority, espec- 
ially by direct and positive command, will 
also be admitted. The strength of the con- 
viction, in every Jewish mind, that the sev- 
enth day, and no other, should be observed 



78 Law. 

as the Sabbath, may be conceived in the 
light of these facts. Now lay beside these 
admissions the fact (undisputed, we think, 
by all who have not been deluded and de- 
ceived by the fallacies of modern Sabbata- 
rians) that from and after the resurrection, 
commencing on the evening of the very day 
on which it occurred, the followers of our 
crucified and risen Lord have observed the 
first day, as their accustomed day of rest 
and worship, with a unanimity that has never 
characterized any other similar change, in 
the history of the world. The efforts of 
late years to dispute this statement have re- 
sulted in masterly failures, for by far stronger 
evidence exists that for the first three hun- 
dred years after the ascension, no discension 
among the Christians of those early times 
had arisen on this question, while the evi- 
dences of its observance, during nearly all 
that time, are overwhelming. 

My suggestion, based upon these facts, 
is, that this change was not without author- 
ity, as it is supposed to be. Every person 
is familiar with the fact that but a small 
portion of what our Savior said and did, 



Law. 79 

while here upon the earth, was ever recorded. 
Paul exhorts the Ephesians, Acts xx. 35, 
" Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, 
how he himself said, It is more blessed to 
give than to receive;" a precept not found 
in either of the gospels. From the record 
given, we would naturally suppose that he 
was somewhere here on earth forty days af- 
ter his resurrection, but of his words and 
works during that time we have almost noth- 
ing. Now, taking into consideration the 
fact that those Jewish followers of his, 
steeped in the habit that was originally in- 
stituted by God himself, and had come down 
to them through fifteen centuries, increasing 
in intensity all the way, of observing the 
seventh day as the Sabbath; is it supposa- 
ble that they all, numbering five thousand 
within two months of his resurrection, 
prompted by no other idea than the propri- 
ety of commemorating the resurretion by 
that means, should agree, without dissent, 
to no longer keep the time-honored, heaven- 
ordained Sabbath holy, but transfer its hon- 
ors and sacredness to the first day? and all 
this without a hint from their revered and 



80 Law. 

mourned Lord- and Master? Did not Jesus 
himself, in one, perhaps several, of the nu- 
merous interviews he must have had with his 
disciples, during those memorable forty days, 
suggest to them the propriety of such a 
change, substantiating the suggestion by 
showing them the greater importance of his 
resurrection over the creation rest day? 
Truly, I cannot conceive that so great, so 
important a change, could have been made, 
with such unanimity, upon any other hy- 
pothesis. Leaving out this suggestion, or 
rather instruction, from Jesus himself, and 
the effect is overwhelmingly too large for the 
the cause. The change could not have been 
made, so suddenly, so completely, so har- 
moniously, without his authority. 

In concluding this Lecture, let me say, I 
hope those of my readers, who have doubted 
the divine authority and sanctity of the 
Christian Sabbath, because a direct com- 
mand to keep it holy is not found in the 
New Testament, will consider the moral 
basis on which we have placed it. The re- 
lations of man to man, and of man to his 
God, were not affected in the least by 



Law. 8r 

the fulfilment and abrogation of the ceremo- 
nial law, the ' ' law of commandments con- 
tained in ordinances." That which is cere- 
monial may pass away or be changed; but 
moral obligations are unchangeable and 
eternal. 



LECTURE V. 



PENALTIES. 

Many erroneous notions prevail respect- 
ing the penalties that are attached to law, 
as the consequence of its transgression. 
The prevailing idea is that the infliction is 
intended to be of the nature of something 
deserved. " I will pay you for that," says 
one school boy to another, who has played 
some trick upon him. " There, take that," 
says a passionate parent to an unruly child; 
"it is not half what you deserve." A thief 
"deserves" imprisonment; a murderer "de- 
serves " death. "Justice demands that law 
shall be satisfied." Now, we apprehend 
that all this is quite foreign from the divine 
idea of the consequences of transgression. 
Governments, including the divine govern- 
ment, exist for the welfare of the governed, 
not to gratify the ambition, sustain the dig- 
nity, or promote the glory of a ruler; nor 
to furnish occasion to wreak vengeance upon 
an offender. " Whosoever of you will be 



Penalties. 83 

the chief est, shall be the servant of all." 
One of the concomitants of the maxim, 
" Might makes right" was " The chief end 
of man is to glorify God." Undoubtedly 
man should glorify his Creator, by devoting 
himself to the end for which he was created, 
but not by recognizing in him an arbitrary, 
tyrannical Sovereign, who can be glorified by 
the abject, slavish servitude of his subjects. 
We think it is safe to say that, Jn all 
the penalties attached to divine law, there 
is no such principle recognized, or even 
hinted, as punitive justice — the infliction of 
pain, damage, discomfort or inconvenience, 
simply as a punishment deserved — so much 
pain for so much sin. All God's penalties 
are corrective. First they warn the offend- 
er, chastening him for his profit. If he will 
not be profited by chastisement, they cut 
him down, as a warning to others, the wel- 
fare of the whole, the greatest good of the 
greatest number, or the greatest profit to 
the highest interests, being always the ulti- 
mate motive. 

Penal, vengeful punishment, is incon- 
sistent with and antagonistic to the nature, 



84 Penalties. 

of moral agency. Such punishment could 
have no other object, nor could it have any 
other effect, than to coerce the will, and 
compel an outward show of conformity to a 
requirement, through dread of consequences, 
while true obedience, obedience that can 
justly claim the reward of virtue, must be 
through love, engendered by a conviction of 
the judgment and a holy purpose of heart, 
conditions that can never be secured by the 
dread of punishment. 

The divine idea of punishment, as stated 
above, is disciplinary; nothing more; noth- 
ing less. "It is for chastening that ye en- 
dure; God dealeth with you as with sons. 
. . . We had the fathers of our flesh to 
chasten us, and we gave them reverence; 
shall we not much rather be in subjection to 
the Father of spirits, and live? For they 
verily for a few days chastened us as seemed 
good to them; but he for our profit, that we 
may be partakers of his holiness " ( Heb. 
xii. 7-10). 

If asked how this view of God's deal- 
ings with transgressors, and especially with 
the incorrigible who will not be reformed, 



Penalties. 85 

can be reconciled with passages that speak 
of God as "taking vengeance on them 
that know not God," as saying "venge- 
ance is mine, I will repay," and many 
other like passages, I reply, just as we 
reconcile the very numerous passages that 
speak of him as "being angry," "the wrath 
of God," etc., with the fact that God is 
love, and is never moved by such passions 
as men call wrath and anger. Men seem 
often to forget that God loves the innocent 
as well as the guilty, the obedient as well as 
the disobedient, the loyal as well as the dis- 
loyal. "God is love;" "his tender mercies 
are over all his works." To protect the 
rights of the loyal, it is often necessary to so 
deal with the disloyal that they may be hin- 
dered from doing the harm they would be 
glad to do. "Surely the wrath of man 
shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath 
shalt thou restrain." So long as the wicked- 
ness of the wicked may be made to react 
upon the world for good, God permits the 
sinner to have his liberty and work his dia- 
bolical plots; but when that limit is reached, 
through love for the faithful, the welfare of 



86 



Pe?ialties. 



the whole, he removes the worker of ini- 
quity, and places him where his influence 
for evil will be restrained; at least, where it 
will not vex the righteous. This seems to 
short sighted mortals as wrath, anger, ven- 
geance, and thus they have named it. The 
necessity of dealing thus with criminals is 
neither unjust nor strange nor mysterious. 
There is not a government upon earth, 
that has not the same provision for dealing 
with the same class of characters. Who ever 
heard of a government, a state, a kingdom, 
that had not a prison, a place in which to 
confine incorrigible transgressors? Who de- 
nounces such a governmental arrangement 
as despotic, cruel, tyrannical? Hell is God's 
state prison. Some one has called it, with 
a propriety that all ought to understand and 
approve, "God's asylum for incurables." 
Nor is it necessary to drive, with force of 
arms, the finally impenitent into the dread- 
ful pit of woe. As "like loves like," and 
"birds of a feather flock together," so each 
of them will "go to his own place" of his 
own accord, when he is no longer permit- 
ted to work his diabolical schemes for the 



Penalties. 87 

ruin and destruction of others. Enter hea- 
ven? You could not force him through the 
pearly gates, to look for a single moment 
upon the glories of the saved, and listen to 
the praises of him that hath redeemed them. 

People who can not endure the imperfect 
devotions of a prayer meeting, or the tedious 
story of the cross for an hour on a Sabbath 
morning, are not in much danger of being 
driven, except by their own inclinations, 
"from the presence of the Lord and the 
glory of his power." Heaven would be to 
them the severest part of hell. It is the 
compassion of God, even for those that hate 
him, and revile him, and curse him, that 
permits them to retire from the glory of his 
presence, which is far too bright for their 
diseased eyes, and take what comfort they 
can in the hateful society of one another. 
"He that sinneth against God wrongeth his 
own soul." With Judas they "go to their 
own place." 

The object, therefore, of the penalties 
that are attached to God's laws, is (1) to 
prevent their transgression by fear of the 
consequences; (2) to cause the offender to 



88 Penalties. 

relent and forsake his evil ways; and (3) to 
protect the innocent and loyal from the 
baleful and ruinous influences of the incor- 
rigibly evil-disposed. 

It should also be kept in mind that, 
while the means necessary for the protec- 
tion and welfare of the loyal may not be re- 
garded as the natural and necessary effect of 
sin upon the sinner, as ' ' the wages of sin 
is death," neither are they to be attributed 
to anger, wrath, resentment, vengeance, and 
payment of deserts. No act of God, no 
treatment of either the righteous or the 
wicked, ever was or ever will be incon- 
sistent with Infinite Love. The highest 
well-being, the greatest happiness, of the 
whole, and of each, so far as each will per- 
mit, is the ultimate motive and object of 
every thought, desire and purpose, of the 
Infinite Father and Sovereign of all. 



LECTURE VI. 



THE ATONEMENT. 

We are now prepared for the discussion 
of what is justly regarded as the most diffi- 
cult of all theological questions. Since God 
was fully aware, before he created man, 
that he would sin; and since the race was 
created for the happiness that would result 
from its existence, it is but natural to sup- 
pose that God would devise some way to 
counteract the effect of the fall, and even to 
turn this manifest evil to some good ac- 
count. This is just what he did. The plan 
of redemption was not an afterthought. 
Without this the acme of his glory would 
not have been reached. 

The problem of creation was a great 
one, but the problem of redemption was 
almost infinitely greater. This problem is 
the highest, the most sublime, the most 
difficult, of all the problems ever brought to 
the attention of a finite intelligence. Men 
think some of the questions, presented for 



9<d The Atonement. 

our solution in the physical and mental 
sciences great and difficult; but those found 
in the science of morals, especially those 
connected with the plan of redemption, are 
far more profound, and far more difficult of 
solution, or even of human comprehension, 
when revealed to us by him who alone was 
capable of solving it. " Concerning whose 
salvation the prophets sought and searched 
dilligently. " "Which things angels desire 
to look into." The key to this whole plan 
of salvation is found in what is called the 
Atonement. 

The word atonement had its origin in 
the Latin words ad and unus, from which 
our words at one were derived; and the 
syllables of the word — at-one-ment — ex- 
press its exact meaning. The Greek word, 
katallage, also corresponds precisely to this 
signification. Our word reconciliation is its 
exact synonym. The idea contained in the 
word atonement, then, is that of the recon- 
ciliation of two parties that are at variance 
with each other. In order to understand 
the necessity and nature of this reconcilia- 
tion, we notice, 






The Atonement. 91 

1. The parties to be reconciled are God 
and man. The relations of these parties 
have been thoroughly discussed in Lecture 
IV. ; and the manner of the alienation be- 
tween them, in Lecture III. What we want 
now to emphasize is, "God is our Father 
and our Mother too." All the interests that 
parents feel in their offspring are properly 
predicated of him. These are all included 
in the word Love. This all-embracing word 
means, in this connection, supreme devotion 
to the welfare of his offspring, and divine 
sympathy with them in all their trials and 
sufferings. This interest in and sympathy 
for the human race is not in the least abated 
by the fact that "knowing God, they glori- 
fied him not as God, neither gave thanks; 
but became vain in their reasonings, and 
their senseless heart was darkened." 

2. God's laws (We call them God's laws, 
not because they originated either in his will 
or in his love; (see Lecture IV.), but because 
he, speaking after the manner of men, dis- 
covered and revealed them to us), are all 
beneficent, adapted to our constitution and 
circumstances, and binding upon us both for 



92 The Atone?nent. 

our own individual good and for the good of 
all intelligent beings, the Deity himself in- 
cluded. 

3. In the exercise cf their moral agency, 
men, individually, have disregarded, trans- 
gressed, these laws, and thus plunged them- 
selves into misery, made others miserable, 
and entailed misery upon their posterity. 
This we call sin. In doing this each one for 
himself has lost the favor of God, incurred 
the disapproval of others, filled his own soul 
with all the horrors of condemnation, and 
bound himself with a chain that he is un- 
able to sever. This is hell; and in this lost, 
helpless, hopeless state he must remain 
eternally, unless delivered by a superhuman, 
superangelic, super-finite, agency. 

4. Notwithstanding his gauling, hateful 
bondage, his moral agency is not destroyed, 
not even impaired. Responsibility both for 
•contracting his bondage and for remaining 
in it, still remains. Although he is abso- 
lutely unable to deliver himself from his de- 
plorable condition, he can refuse to be re- 
conciled to it, can strive against even the 
"sins that so easily beset him," and is in no 



The Atonement. 93 

way curtailed in his ability to avail himself 
of any assistance that may be offered him. 
This condition is vividly described in Rom. 
vii. 14-16, 21-25. "We know that the law 
is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. 
For that which I do I know not: for not 
what I would, that do I practice; but what 
I hate, that I do. But if what I would not, 
that I do, I consent unto the law that it is 
good. ... I find then the law, that, to me 
who would do good, evil is present. For I 
delight in the law of God after the inward 
man; but I see a different law in my mem- 
bers, warring against the law of my mind, 
and bringing me into captivity under the 
law of sin which is in my members. O 
wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver 
me out of the body of this death? ... So 
then I myself, with the mind, indeed, serve 
the law of God, but with the flesh the law 
of sin." 

This passage was, and that not far into- 
the long ago, generally supposed to describe 
the prevailing Christian experience; and 
Christians who were "living in the 7th 
chapter of Romans," used often to quote,. 



94 The Atonement. 

"When I would do good, evil is present 
with me." They used, also, to sing with the 
humane and excellent Cowper, 

"'Tis a point I long to know, 
Oft it causes anxious thought, 
Do I love the Lord or no, 
Am I his, or am I not? " 

and with Watts, 

"Dear Lord, and shall we ever live 
At this poor, dying rate? " 

Doubtless many who "indulge a hope," 
whose names are found on rolls of church 
members, are still waging their warfare 
against sin, and the bondage of sin, from 
this disadvantageous front line of battle. 
The passage is intended, however, to de- 
scribe the experience of a soul that is con- 
scious of its bondage, and its own inability 
to escape therefrom; struggling for deliver- 
ance, and looking for assistance from some 
higher source. "Who shall deliver me out 
of the body of this death?" Death, moral 
death, is as a body, in which the soul is im- 
prisoned, and from which it cannot be de- 
livered, except by divine aid. 



The Atonement. 95 

Perhaps we should call to mind, as we 
pass, that there are those who do not real- 
ize their bondage, and have no desire to be 
delivered from it. They have become in- 
fatuated with sin, are soured against holi- 
ness and everything that savors of holiness; 
''call evil good, and good evil; put darkness 
for light, and light for darkness." These 
have come into this state of moral depravity 
by their own voluntary choices. In the ex- 
ercise of their moral agency they brought 
themselves. into their delusions; and by the 
same means they remain there. Their free- 
dom, as moral agents, is in no way destroyed 
or impaired by the blindness of their minds 
or the darkness of their understanding. Help 
is within their reach; they may avail them- 
selves of it if they will; and they will be held 
responsible for their own ruin and despair, 
if they do not. If they persist in their de- 
lusion and willful stubborness, they are lost. 
They hate God and everything that God 
loves. Nothing can move them. They are 
incorrigible, incurable. Such are lost. There 
is no help for them; because they despise 
the "only name under heaven, that is given 



96 The Atonement. 

among men, wherein we must be saved.'* 
This rebellion against God and against all 
that is good is hell, whether in this life or 
any other, past, present or future; and since 
they are deathless in their very nature and 
constitution, their hell is, unavoidably and 
indisputably, eternal. They are fixed, un- 
alterably and forever, in their purpose to 
have nothing to do with offers of pardon on 
condition of repentance. No atonement, 
no means of reconciliation, can reach them, 
or have any influence upon them for good. 
A truthful but terrible description of them 
may be found in the second chapter of the 
second epistle of Peter. 

5. Just at this juncture, when the bound 
and fettered and helpless and lost soul is 
groaning and struggling for deliverance, 
Christ, " mighty to save," appears upon the 
scene. He comes to offer the necessary 
help. 'Thou shalt call his name Jesus, it 
is he who shall save his people from their 
sins." 

6. We are now ready to inquire what 
God wishes and purposes to effect through 
the gift of his Son as a "sacrifice for sin?" 



The Atonement. 97 

(1) He does not wish nor purpose to do 
anything that will militate against the au- 
thority or dignity of his moral government, 
nor compromise justice, nor encourage sin, 
nor even the hope of escaping the penalty 
of sin, in such a sense that men shall oe so 
much as tempted to ' l sin because grace 
abounds." None of these things can be 
done. To permit them, and especially to 
devise a plan by which souls might be saved 
at such an expense would make God him- 
self the chief of sinners, a rebel against his 
own throne, and not against his own throne 
only but against the rights and welfare of 
every moral agent in the universe. The end 
and object of moral government must not 
be compromised, 

Justice and Mercy are not at war with 
each other. There is no antagonism be- 
tween them, in any sense or degree. They 
belong not only to God, to judges, to gov- 
ernments, and to all governmental officials, 
but to every intelligence in the universe;; 
and if they were at variance, every intelli- 
gence, from God to the weakest, would be : 
at war with himself. They are attributes of: 



98 The Atonement. 

the same mind, and must work in harmony 
with each other. Mercy can never be shown 
until Justice is satisfied; nor Justice be exe- 
cuted until Mercy consents. So long as the 
objective ends of law and penalty can be 
gained by merciful means, retributive or pu- 
nitive measures cannot be resorted to. To 
inflict death, suffering, disgrace, even annoy- 
ance or discomfort, upon an offender, when 
Justice might be satisfied without such inflic- 
tion, would be itself injustice. 

(2) It is his purpose to secure by merci- 
ful measures all that the most rigid execu- 
tion of the natural penalties of law could 
effect, in the way of honoring the Sovereign, 
maintaining the dignity of the government, 
securing the welfare of its subjects, and at 
the same time make a loyal subject of the 
offender, thus compelling Justice to demand 
his release from the sentence that he him- 
self had pronounced against him. 

Let us illustrate this point by a supposed 
case in any human government. We have 
shown, in Lecture V., that the object of 
punishment is first to reform the offender, 
and secondly, in case the offender will not 



The Atonement. 99 

be reformed, but becomes dangerous to the 
welfare of community, to separate him from 
loyal and peaceable citizens, a state prison 
being provided for that purpose; thus secur- 
ing peace, order and safety to good citizens, 
and doing a substantial favor to the offender 
himself. The motive to this apparently 
harsh procedure is in no sense, in no degree, 
malevolent. It is benevolent in every par- 
ticular. The state does not exult, the citi- 
zens do not rejoice, in the sufferings of the 
culprit, however fiendish and incorrigible 
he may have shown himself, in fact they 
pity the poor, deluded victim of his own 
folly and depravity, and consent to his suf- 
fering only because that is the only way to- 
assure themselves against his depredations. 
These are the ends that Justice demands, 
in any government, human or divine. More- 
over, when these ends are secured, Justice 
is satisfied, and the end of this function of 
government, viz. , the securing of the peace 
and welfare of its subjects, is fully realized. 
Now, let us suppose that some Salvation 
Army General, or Captain, or private, should 
go to the prison, where these ' ' poor sinners" 



ioo The Atonement. 

against the peace and dignity of the state 
are shut in, that they may thus be shut out 
from the community whose welfare they re- 
fused to regard, and effect such a thorough 
reformation of the culprits there incarcer- 
ated, that each one should become a good, 
useful, industrious citizen, loyal to the state, 
true, noble, trustworthy, in every trait of 
his character. Would you, would anybody, 
object to the release of those prisoners ? In 
their reformation is not every end of Justice 
effected more satisfactorily to the govern- 
ment, and to the community, than their life- 
long punishment could effect it? How this il- 
lustration applies to the salvation of sinners 
against the government of God, and the wel- 
fare of men, thus explaining the philosophy 
of the atonement, we shall see as we pro- 
ceed. 

7. We are now prepared to note criti- 
cally the exact situation. 

(1) The sinner stands before the bar of 
God, " condemned already." 

(2) Justice does not say, as has often been 
represented, "Cut him down." Instead of 
this, he turns to Mercy, with the anxious 



The Atonement. 101 

inquiry ' ' Can you do anything for him ?" 
Mercy replies, ' ■ I will try. " 

(3) The Judge states the case. "This 
culprit has voluntarily, willfully, knowingly, 
inexcusably transgressed a righteous law, 
approved by every intelligence, good and 
bad, in the universe. He is not only con- 
victed by unimpeachable testimony, but he 
frankly and honestly confesses his guilt. 
The penalty of this transgression, the justice 
of which is not questioned by any intelli- 
gence in the universe, is death. 'The 
wages of sin is death.' ' The soul that sin- 
neth, it shall die.' This soul is imperisha- 
ble in its nature. It is immortal. Its con- 
scious existence can never have an end. He 
not only stands condemned before this high 
court, but ever} 7 intelligent moral agent in 
the universe condemns him. In the depth 
of his soul he also condemns himself, and 
acknowledges the justice of the penalty 
(Rom. vii. 16). How forlorn, how desper- 
ate, how hopeless his condition. Unless he 
can be brought to repentance, he will only 
become continually worse and worse, until 
he shall join the company of those 'wander- 



102 The Atonement. 

ing stars, for whom the blackness of dark- 
ness hath been reserved forever. ' Mercy do 
thy best. If any way can be found by 
which I may be just and yet justify this poor, 
wretched, lost soul, find it." 

(4) Justice addressing Mercy, " One 
thing, loving sister, you must bear in mind: 
I can consent to no terms, for the release of 
this culprit from his just deserts — eternal 
despair, that will, in any way or degree, 
militate against the rights or welfare of our 
Sovereign, or of the most insignificant sub- 
ject of his kingdom, or of any soul in the 
universe, though it be in fiercest rebellion 
against him." 

(5) Mercy responds: "Nor will Icon- 
sent that he shall be delivered over to hope- 
less and eternal perdition, until every means 
that Infinite Love can prompt and Infinite 
Wisdom devise, for his restoration to loy- 
alty and full reconciliation to thy demands 
have been exhausted upon him in vain." 

8. When these demands of both Justice 
and Mercy are fully satisfied, nothing more 
is necessary, from whatever standpoint the 
transaction is regarded. If the sinner, 



The Atonement. 103 

every sinner in the world, accepts the kind 
offices of Mercy and is saved, reformed in 
heart and life, changed to a good, loyal 
subject, Justice has no further demand upon 
him. That is itself the highest exhibition, 
the very end, of justice. The dignity of 
the government is not compromised; the 
wisdom of the Sovereign, in giving the 
law and proclaiming the penalty, is vindi- 
cated; transgression is discouraged; pen- 
itence encouraged, and every ideal of a 
perfect and righteous government, fully 
realized; the highest ideal of a perfect gov- 
ernment being the greatest good of all con- 
cerned, Sovereign and subjects. 

If, on the other hand, the offender 
spurns these gracious offices, every hope of 
Mercy is extinguished Everything has been 
done for the saving of the lost soul that 
Infinite Love and Infinite Wisdom com- 
bined could effect. The soul is lost by its 
own mad choice. "Madness is in their 
heart while they live; and after that they go 
to the dead." 

9. The execution of this difficult task 
was committed to the second person in the 



104 The Atonement. 

Godhead (See' Lecture X.) — the Word of 
Creation, the Jehovah of Providence, the 
Christ of redemption — known when he 
"dwelt among us" as the Son of God and 
the Son of man. His human name was 
Jesus: "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, 
for it is he that shall save his people from 
their sins." Our inquiry now is, How did 
he accomplish this great work? What did 
he do, the result of which should be to save 
fallen men and women from sin and death? 

(i) He assumed the form of man; 
dwelt on earth in a human body; was sub- 
ject to all the desires, necessities and incon- 
veniences of a human life; which to him 
must have been a humiliation, a self-denial, 
incomprehensible to us, and incomparable 
to any similar act of any other intelligent 
being of whom we have any knowledge. 

Thus he came to us; became one of us; 
laid his hand upon us; bridged the chasm 
between divinity and humanity; manifested 
to our human senses the goodness, the wis- 
dom, the love, the power to save, of the 
Infinite Father. By this mission the world, 
even in its rebellion and alienation, has 



The Atonement. 105 

been made acquainted with God, been made 
to understand what kind of a being God is 
towards us. The adage says, "There are 
those whom we do not like, because we do 
not know them, and we will not become ac- 
quainted with them, because we do not like 
them." Thus to the unregenerate soul, out 
of Christ, " God is a consuming fire; " but 
in Christ, as revealed to us through Christ, 
he is to us individually a loving Father. 
Jesus, the "mediator between God and 
men" (not man as a race, but men as indi- 
viduals), has made us acquainted with him. 
With his divine right arm around the 
Father, he throws his human arm around 
the sinner, and brings the alienated parties 
together. This is atonement literally, in its 
true and highest sense; "according to the 
glorious gospel of the blessed God." 

(2) His was a perfect life. "Tempted 
in all points, like as we are, yet without 
sin," he has shown us how to meet temp- 
tations of the devil, how to conquer the 
appetites of the flesh, how to rise above 
the degrading influences of the world, also 
how to sympathize with those who are in 



to6 The Atonement. 

distress, how to minister to those who are in 
want, how to deny ourselves for the good of 
others, how to lay down our lives if need be 
to save them, and how to trust him that 
life, thus sacrificed, will be restored to us 
again through a triumphant resurrection. 

(3) The effect of this revelation of the 
true attitude of the Father; namely, that of 
love, love only and forever; towards deluded, 
fallen, wandering, lost souls; emphasized by 
the voluntary humiliation, cheerful self- 
sacrifice, patient suffering, exemplary life, 
wonderful doctrines, triumphant death and 
glorious resurrection, of his beloved Son, 
which constitute the influential means that 
Mercy employs, is more potent than all other 
influences, known or imaginable, to return 
wandering prodigals to their Father's house, 
induce reformation of character and life, 
save the world from rebellion, give stability 
to the government, and reflect highest honor 
upon the Sovereign, thus realizing every 
end and demand of Justice, and at the same 
time securing the atonement, reconciliation, 
of disloyal, rebellious souls to their God, 
Father, Sovereign, by changing them, con- 



The Atonement. 107 

verting them, into loyal, loving, obedient 
subjects of his kingdom. Is not such a 
work of redemption, whereby it is so clear, 
and so easily comprehended too, that "he 
might be just, and the justifier of him that 
believeth in Jesus," the most sublime of all 
his work, the crowning glory of our most 
glorious Sovereign, God and Father? 

10. To make this theory of the atone- 
ment clearer to all, and establish its truth 
more firmly in the minds of all, as well as 
to remove some objections, let us consider 
the following facts and circumstances: 

( 1 ) While the offer of atonement, the 
conditions of reconciliation, are made avail- 
able by every sinful son and daughter of 
Adam, they elect, individually, whether they 
will avail themselves of the offer, and com- 
ply with the conditions or not. Hence, the 
demands of Justice are met, through the 
working of these merciful agencies, only in 
the case of those who accept them. The 
natural consequences of persistent disloy- 
alty cannot be averted. The just condem- 
nation of the incorrigible is made doubly 
reasonable by the fact that they sinned 



108 The Atonement . 

williully at the first, and willfully and stub- 
bornly refused to accept Mercy's offer of par- 
don and reconciliation, thus adding greatly 
to their guilt. 

In their case, Mercy retires weeping from 
the scene, and sorrowfully consents that the 
sword of Justice must be allowed to do its 
fatal work. "These shall go away into 
eternal punishment"' (Mat. xxv. 46). This 
is all the satisfaction Justice has in their 
case. How unsatisfying it must be, as com- 
pared with that which is experienced in the 
case of those that are saved. Justice him- 
self weeps as he executes the dreadful pen- 
alty. For we must still bear in mind that 
Justice, as truly as Mercy, is an attribute of 
Love. '* I have no pleasure, saith the Lord, 
in the death of him that dieth." God's love 
for both the loyal and rebellious requires 
that the latter be placed in his state prison, 
his Asylum for the incurable, where they 
can do no harm. 

(2) It is well known that Love, when 
appreciated, is vastly more potent to secure 
obedience, that is, to prevent disobedience, 
than threats of the severest punishments that 



The Atonement. 109. 

could be inflicted. Call to mind also, in 
passing, that the obedience of love is 
obedience, that of fear, even when perfect 
in form, is not ethical obedience, because 
it lacks the spirit of obedience. In the 
gift of his Son, to bring his offer of a merci- 
ful salvation to a lost world, God has 
made such an exhibition of regard for the 
welfare and happiness of our fallen race 
as no mind, except the Infinite, could ever 
have thought of; and to which nothing but 
Infinite Love could prompt. Moreover, the 
love of the Father is still further intensified 
and emphasized by the Son, in the cheerful- 
ness with which "he who was rich for our 
sakes became poor, that we, through his 
poverty, might be rich;" "who, existing 
in the form of God, counted not the being 
on an equality with God a thing to be 
grasped, but emptied himself, taking the 
form of a servant, being made in the like- 
ness of men; and being found in fashion as 
a man, he humbled himself, becoming obe- 
dient even unto death, yea, the death of the 
cross." " I lay down my life, that I may 
take it again. No one taketh it away from 



no The Atonement. 

me, but I lay it down of myself." "He 
offered up himself." 

What wonder that such a manifestation 
of such love should challenge the admiration 
of all the intelligences in the universe! What 
wonder that "we love him, because he first 
loved us!" Thus the reason becomes evi- 
ident why the atonement is more potent to 
prevent sin than the execution of the pen- 
alty of the law. It is a fact well established 
in the experience of every moral agent 
that a willing, grateful, loving devotion to 
a parent or a teacher renders its possessor 
more attentive to opportunities to show 
that devotion by acts of loving obedience 
than the strongest influence of a threatened 
punishment can be to put one on his guard 
against temptation to disobedience. The 
contrast between these two states of mind 
and their influence to prevent transgression 
is marked and significant. The one is a 
fixed, living, ever active desire for an oppor- 
tunity to please the law-giver; ever on the 
alert, with "Here am I send me" glowing 
in his heart and shining in his anxious eyes 
and countenance; the othe'r is longing for 



The Atonement. 1 1 1 

the forbidden fruit, and hating both the law 
and the law-giver that prohibit it. In this 
attitude, what wonder that ' ' when tempta- 
tions come in like a flood," when lusts burn 
for indulgence, when resentment of wrong 
or insult, actual or fancied, suddenly bursts 
forth into an uncontrollable flame of anger, 
a reckless spirit gains full possession and all 
the dire consequences of disobedience are, 
for the moment, forgotten. 

(3 ) It is also a fact that the soul that is 
moved by grateful love to loyalty resents 
with firmest purpose influences to disloyalty. 
Such a soul is not " empty, swept and gar- 
nished; " it is full. Every recess is occupied 
with hearty, loving, irresistible, ever active 
devotion to loyal obedience. Its language 
is, "What shall I render to my God for all 
his benefits?" a state of mind that is more 
reliable and efficient to secure obedience 
than the strongest resolution possible, to 
escape a penalty, while burning with desire 
for the forbidden object. 

(4) Another fact of great significance 
and power is that rescue from danger, the 
saving of one's life, is the most potent of all 



ii2 The Atonement. 

things to beget and perpetuate in the heart 
of the saved, that loving devotion to the 
Savior, that secures the most perfect service 
possible. 

(5) The accumulated influence and 
power of all these facts are an ample sub- 
stitute, in the practical working of the 
atonement, for the severest penalty of the 
most aggravated offence. Who can, for a 
single moment, doubt the superiority of this 
substitute over the execution of the penalty, 
to prevent transgression? This being the 
case, Justice is not only satisfied, but re- 
joices to accept it. A better end is reached 
than Justice ever dreamed of in this partic- 
ular. This is Mercy's triumph No. 1. 

(6) The atonement vindicates the right- 
eousness of the law and the wisdom of the 
penalty attached to it. In the light of these 
persistent efforts to save the sinner, efforts 
to which the offended Sovereign was moved 
by motives which the selfish heart, while in 
its willful and wayward course of selfish 
indulgence and haughty defiance, could 
neither consider nor appreciate; and still 
further impressed by the gratitude and 



The Atonement, 113 

blessedness of the saved, even the lost are 
compelled to acknowledge the complete sat- 
isfaction of Justice, as shown in the case of 
the saved, and the wisdom of both the law 
and the penalty, as visited upon themselves. 
While those who "stand upon the sea of 
glass, having the harps of God, sing the 
song of Moses, the servant of God, and the 
song of the Lamb, saying, Great and mar- 
velous are thy works, O Lord God, the 
Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, 
thou king of the ages," not a word of 
complaint of injustice comes from those 
who are hieing away ' ' from the face 
of him that sitteth on the throne, and 
from the wrath of the Lamb. " Every in- 
telligence in the universe, that has any 
knowledge of the transaction, acquiesces in 
the final, decisions of "that great day." 
This is Mercy's triumph No. 2. 

(7) The plan of salvation, through 
these merciful agencies, moves the sinner to 
penitence; and "godly sorrow worketh re- 
pentance unto salvation." 

Many seem never to consider that, while 
the punishment of an offender may have an 

8 



H4 The A tonement. 

influence over a non-offender, to deter him 
from an overt act of transgression, it may be 
doubted whether it has any influence on an 
old offender to lead him to repentance. 
Nor has it any influence to beget loving 
obedience (which alone is moral obedience), 
in the heart of any one, innocent or guilty. 
Hence it follows that, not only could none 
be recovered from guilt, who had trans- 
gressed; but that grateful obedience, which 
the redeemed sinner knows, would have 
been unknown. Even the obedience of 
angels is not prompted by gratitude. Jus- 
tice deals out to them deserved reward. 
They know nothing of mercy, only as they 
see it shown towards fallen men. ' ' Which 
things angels desire to look into." On this 
point, Mercy scores triumph No. 3. 

(8) With these points gained, pardon is 
safe. The redeemed, the regenerated sin- 
ner is a more trustworthy citizen than the 
one who has never known the bitterness of 
condemnation and the inconceivable joy of 
salvation. He is safer, because a dread of 
sin itself, which is far more effectual than 
the dread of punishment, is begotten in the 



The Atonement. 115 

depths of his soul. He knows the bitter- 
ness of the ' ' fruit of the tree of the knowl- 
edge of good and evil," and wants no more 
of it. He is satisfied to feed henceforth on 
the fruit of the tree of life. Mercy's tri- 
umph No. 4. 

(9) Multitudes are now saved, where all 
would, in all probability, have been lost. 
Had there been no offer of mercy, there 
would have been no hope in repentance, 
and hence no repentance. Despair is not 
capable of making a penitent plea, it ex- 
cludes faith, and 4 ' without faith it is impos- 
sible to be well-pleasing unto him: for he 
that cometh to God must believe that he is, 
and that he is a rewarder of them that seek 
after him." Moreover, the nature of sin is 
to deceive the sinner as to the disposition 
of God towards him. Every man sees God 
through his own eyes. Ps. xviii. 25, 26, 
' • With the merciful thou wilt show thyself 
merciful; with the perfect man thou wilt 
show thyself perfect; with the pure thou 
wilt show thyself pure; and with the per- 
verse thou wilt show thyself froward." 
Under this delusion, hope of favor is impos- 



n6 The Atone?nent. 

sible; and application, supplication for 
mercy equally impossible. Here we find 
again the necessity for the gospel, what is 
termed "the means of grace." The revel- 
ations of the true attitude of God towards 
sinners, made by the advent, life, teach- 
ing, death, resurrection, and ascension 
of the Son of God, are the foundation of 
faith that the Father longs for, and will 
welcome, the return of his wandering and 
unhappy children. Hence, through the 
atonement, multitudes are now saved, where 
without it all would have been lost. Had 
the Creator foreseen such a result, of course 
the race would never have been created. 
This brings me to notice, 

(10) This method of satisfying the de- 
mands of Justice by merciful means, and 
thus saving the sinner, was not an after- 
thought. It was part of the original plan, 
the culmination in fact of the whole plan of 
creation, as far as this world is concerned. 
The whole problem was fully solved, and 
each particular of the entire arrangement 
fully settled between the Father and the 
Word, who was in the beginning with God, 



The Atonement. . 117 

before ' ' God created the heavens and the 
earth." The passages that seem to me to 
plainly teach this fact are, Rev. xiii. 8, 
" The Lamb slain from the foundation of 
the world;" I Peter i. 18-21. "Knowing 
that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible 
things, with silver or gold, from your vain 
manner of life, handed down from your 
fathers; but with precious blood, as of a 
lamb without blemish and without spot, 
even the blood of Christ; who was fore- 
known indeed before the foundation of the 
world, but was manifested at the end of 
the time for your sake, who through him are 
believers in God;" 2 Tim. i, 9, "Accord- 
ing to his own purpose and grace, which was 
given us in Christ Jesus before times eter- 
nal." This idea is also sustained by the fact 
that the sacrifices required under the old dis- 
pensation were prophetic symbols of the 
atoning sacrifice, made in the fullness of 
time. If that event had not been prear- 
ranged, it could not have been predicted. 

(11) In this arrangement, it is manifest 
that the Father, who planned all things, 
projected the scheme; and that the Son, 



u8 The Atonement. 

who has been the executive Deity from "the 
beginning," of his own free will, uninflu- 
enced by any authority or compulsion, (ex- 
cept that moral compulsion that requires all 
intelligent beings, the infinite and the finite 
alike, to always act in view of the general 
good), consented to the arrangement, with 
full knowledge of all the self-sacrifice it 
would require, involving the necessity that 
he should assume the character of a man 
upon the earth, endure all the inconve- 
niences of a mortal life under most distress- 
ing circumstances, be despised and rejected 
of men, suffer the agonies of Gethsemane 
and the cross, and spend a season in the 
tomb, to accomplish the great and wonder- 
ful end. This fact is particularly important, 
as refuting the disgraceful travesty, that has 
sometimes been advanced, that according to 
the atonement theory, God compelled his 
innocent Son to suffer and die under the 
penalty of the sins of others; thereby un- 
justly punishing the innocent and releasing 
the guilty. The fact that coercion of a 
moral agent is impossible, and the evidence 
that Jesus came on his mighty errand of 



The Atonement. 119 

his own free will, moyed by the same love 
that moved the Father to send him, consti- 
tute a sufficient answer to all such carrica- 
ture. 

(12) It is often claimed that nothing 
was ever necessary, as a condition of par- 
don and restoration to the divine favor but 
repentance; and that, on that account, the 
doctrine of the necessity of an atonement is 
a myth. Such reasoners say, " God was 
always perfectly willing to forgive. He is 
not a wrathful, vengeful being; whose wrath 
must be appeased by a bloody, suffering 
sacrifice. " The fallacy of this reasoning only 
lies in the fact that they have not taken all 
the facts into account in their premises. Re- 
cognizing only the fact that God did not re- 
quire a bloody sacrifice to appease his wrath, 
and that he so loved the sinner that he would 
be glad to forgive him, and welcome him to 
all the joys of his loving favor and presence. 
They forget that the sinner himself has some- 
thing to say in the case, that he may possi- 
bly refuse to accept any such gracious and 
loving offer. 

We freely admit that God was always 



120 The Atonement. 

willing and anxious to forgive. No bloody 
sacrifice was necessary to modify, in any re- 
spect, his attitude towards the sinner. It 
was the attitude of the sinner himself that 
needed to be changed. He it was who 
needed to be reconciled. He was at war 
against God, not God against him. The 
hindrance is not on God's part, that pardon 
is impossible where there is no penitence. 
The assumption that the sinner is ready, 
willing, anxious to be pardoned is a great 
mistake. Jesus says, "Ye will not come 
unto me that ye may have life." An edict 
of pardon can effect nothing, unless the 
offender will accept it. How can any man, 
how can God himself, compel an enemy to 
receive pardon? The necessity of the atone- 
ment was to bring the sinner to repentance, 
in other words to induce, persuade him to 
receive pardon. 

Moreover, this theory is confronted by 
one of the most bald and extraordinary ab- 
surdities conceivable. It takes the govern- 
ment out of the hands of the Sovereign, 
and puts it into the hands of the offender 
himself. Repentance being the condition of 



The Atonement. 121 

pardon, and the offender being sovereign of 
his own volitions, he can remain in rebel- 
lion as long as he chooses, repent at the 
moment that suits him best, and compel 
the Executive to grant him a pardon, and 
release him from all liability to punishment, 
whenever he may be in the mood to do so. 
Would not that be a pretty state of things 
in a divine government, or any other? We 
should always bear in mind that it belongs 
to the government, not to offenders, to 
dictate terms of peace. 

REMARKS. 

1 . This problem, how to deliver a culprit 
from the penalty of the law he had trans- 
gressed, and at the same time honor the 
government, shield the executive from cen- 
sure, and give no encouragement to further 
disregard of the law, thus satisfying the last 
and least demand of Justice, was, so far as 
we are capable of judging, the greatest and 
most difficult ever submitted to and solved 
by the infinite mind; Its intricacy was so 
great that the discovery of the principle on 
which it was solved, even when the stu- 
pendous drama was enacted before our eyes, 



122 The Atonement. 

has, until very recently, been impossible, 
even to the most careful and painstaking 
student. The reason is this. The details 
of the whole transaction are in perfect ac- 
cordance with the principles of moral agency, 
and these are of recent discovery and, per- 
haps, only imperfectly understood, by the 
world's best thinkers, at the present time. 

Viewed from the standpoint of the arbi- 
trary Sovereignty of God, that solution was 
impossible. Hence the absurd hypotheses 
that have been advanced by which to recon- 
cile the discrepancy between the necessity of 
executing the reasonable penalty ot a right- 
eous law, and the deliverance of a culprit, 
of whose guilt no possible doubt could be 
entertained, from that penalty, and restor- 
ing to him all the privileges and immunities 
of an unoffending citizen; and accomplish- 
ing this paradoxical feat of statesmanship 
in such a way as to secure the approbation 
of every citizen of the government, and 
reflect not even a shade of injustice upon 
the Sovereign. 

2. What a misapprehension of the facts 
those have, who are ready to pluck the 



The Atonement. 123. 

Deity from his throne for creating men to 
send them to hell, when he knew before- 
hand that that would be the inevitable re- 
sult. The true state of the case is, that 
multitudes are now saved, where all would 
have been lost; at least all who fell into sin; 
and those who are lost, go down to "the 
perdition of ungodly men" in spite of all the 
influences that infinite love could prompt, 
infinite wisdom devise, and infinite sacrifice 
execute and make efficient. Let men cease 
their complaining, fall in cheerfully with 
God's plan of a human life, accept the re- 
sponsibilities of moral agency, and gain the 
glorious condition thus made possible to 
them, and all will be well. God will be 
honored, and man attain to the glories of 
an immortal and eternal existence of happi- 
ness ineffable. 

3. A moment's reflection will show how 
immeasurably the guilt of the finally incor- 
rigible will be enhanced by their persistence 
in sin, against the unexampled and persis- 
tent means of grace that they reject and de- 
spise. The justice of their final doom will 
be acquiesced in and approved by all, the 



12 4 The A tonement. 

saved and the lost, when the revelations of 
the final judgment shall correct the errors, 
clear away the mist, and rectify the falla- 
cious reasoning of those who now "com- 
plain against God." 

4. The Jews in their rejection and cruci- 
fiction of the Son of God, and all incorrig- 
ible sinners no less, in their refusal to ac- 
cept him as their Savior, have made, and do 
continually make, such an exhibition of the 
nature and consequent desert of sin as will 
forever exclude them from all pity. Crim- 
inals never receive moral approval and sup- 
port from any quarter, not even from their 
own companions in crime. How can they 
when they are condemned of their own con- 
sciences? He who can not approve his own 
conduct should not, and need not, expect 
approval from any person, in heaven or on 
earth. In proof of this, ask each one of a 
gang of desperadoes what he thinks of his 
companions in crime, taking them one by 
one, and he will say of each, " He is a hard 
case." 

There is no other aspect of sin in which 
*t appears so heinous, so cruel, so unreason- 



The Atonement. .125. 

able, so heartless, so inhuman, so hateful, 
so mean, as when it rages angrily, mali- 
ciously, boisterously, against innocence, 
against kindness, against love, against self- 
sacrifice for the raging sinner himself. What 
a scene was that when the raving crowd 
cried out, " Away with him! Crucify him!" 
and Pilate asked, "Why? what evil hath 
he done?" Sure enough. How pertinent 
the inquiry, "Why? what evil hath he 
done?" The spotless Lamb of God "came 
unto his own, and his own received him 
not." Was it not this exhibition of this 
deep depravity, the inexpressible ingratitude 
of the incorrigible sinner, that wrung the 
sweat from his very veins, in the garden of 
Gethsemane? Verily, verily, there is no 
other form in which sin appears so exceed- 
ingly sinful as when the sinner deliberately 
rejects the merciful offer of salvation, as it 
is presented in the atoning blood, that is, in 
the suffering life and cruel death on Calvary, 
of Jesus, the Son of God. 

5. One thought more, before we close 
this already protracted discussion. This is 
the particular doctrine in which lies "the 



126 The Atonement. 

power of God unto salvation." Men will 
never forsake sin with resolute purpose, and 
successfully, and avail themselves of divine 
help to that end, until they realize the hate- 
fulness, the exceeding sinfulness of sin; and 
this a mere exemplary and sympathizing 
Christ can never beget. It is the self-sacri- 
ficing, suffering, dying Christ, who makes 
the sinner ashamed of his alienation, and 
causes him to long for reconciliation. ' 'We 
love him because he first loved us." 

Ministers who leave the doctrine of the 
atonement out of their sermons, and en- 
deavor to make men Christlike by portray- 
ing his perfect, unselfish life, as an example 
and high model, to be admired and imitated, 
need not wonder that few, or none, are con- 
verted under their preaching. How shall 
men be persuaded to sincerely and earnestly 
make Christ their model, who do not even 
follow the example and adopt the maxims 
of the living Christian men and women with 
whom they daily associate? Depend upon 
it, the gospel that saves is not Christ our 
model, but Christ the crucified. The cross; 
that is, the atoning sacrifice of him, "who 



The Atonement. 127 

his own self bare our sins in his body upon 
the tree," is the central sun of the gospel 
system, around which every other gospel 
truth revolves, as a planet in its orbit. 

Many will tell me they do not under- 
stand this doctrine, and how can they teach 
it? To this question I have two answers. 
First, you may not understand the chemis- 
try of water or of food, yet you can give 
water to the thirsty and food to the hungry. 
" Preach the word;" and leave the rest with 
God. My second answer is, Study it until 
you do understand it; and then preach it, 
until your hearers understand it. The ex- 
planation, the philosophy of the atonement, 
as given in this course of lectures, is not 
difficult to understand. There are many 
problems whose solution is very difficult; 
but, when solved, the solution is so simple 
that everybody wonders why he did not 
solve it himself. It was easy for the royal 
court of Spain to stand an egg on its end, 
after Columbus had shown how it could be 
done. The true philosophy of the atone- 
ment has waited long for the true philosophy 
of moral agency. When men acquaint them- 



128 The Atonement. 

selves with the latter, they will find it easy 
to comprehend the former. Do not rest, 
my reader, until you see clearly that the 
Love of God, in the gift of his Son, and the 
Love of the Son, in voluntarily laying down 
his life for the sinner, answer the end and 
purpose of the penalty of the law, in the case 
of all who believe, more perfectly and satis- 
factorily even to justice itself than the exe- 
cution of that penalty could have done; and 
that the very highest desires of Mercy are 
realized at the same time: Justice heartily 
consenting that the truly penitent shall be 
pardoned and saved; and Mercy as heartily 
consenting that the penalty of the law shall 
be executed on those who will not repent. 



LECTURE VII. 



REGENERATION— CONVERSION. 

This subject is another dark place on 
which light is needed. Some there are who 
have quite well-defined views on the subject, 
but very erroneous; a few have well-defined 
views, that are in the main correct; but a very 
large majority, even of the clergy, only 
"see men as trees walking," when they turn 
their intellectual eyes upon it. The result is 
that, in many pulpits, the subject is never 
mentioned at all; in many others, it is re- 
ferred to only to ■ ' darken counsel by words 
without knowledge;" and in a few, it is in- 
telligently, but usually only partially han- 
dled. The truth is, it is a question, like 
that of the atonement, that can never be 
clearly understood only in the light of a 
correct philosophy of moral agency. 

The words regeneration and conversion 
are generally supposed to be synonymous. 
My opinion is that, while the difference is 
not of such a nature as to necessitate fun- 



130 Regeneration — Conversion . 

damental error, it may be the occasion of an 
error that is, to say the least, very serious. 
The words are very far from being syno- 
nymous in their etymology. Regeneration, 
etymologically, means begotten again, or 
born again. The word conversion contains 
no hint of either begetting or birth, either 
in the Latin from which the word is derived, 
or in the Greek from which it is translated. 
Its idea is simply that of turning around. 
Words that differ so widely in their literal 
signification have no rightful claim to being 
synonymous. To my mind it is very clear 
that regeneration refers particularly to the 
begetting and bringing into being a new in- 
ward life. This is the work of the Holy 
Spirit. Conversion, turning around, facing 
the other way, is the act of the sinner him- 
self. It is he who says, 4< I will arise and 
go to my father;" "Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do? " This difference will be fur- 
ther elucidated as we proceed with this dis- 
cussion. 

My object in this lecture is to trace, as 
minutely as possible, each step in this im- 
portant change. That we may do this 



Regeneration — Conversion. 131 

intelligently, we purpose to turn upon the 
subject the light of the scriptures, the light 
of philosophy, and the light of experience. 
Let us consider, 

1. The state, the moral condition, of 
the unregenerate man. 

The most minute photograph of such a 
person that perhaps has ever been taken is 
found in Rom. 1:28-32. "As they refused 
to have God in their knowledge, God gave 
them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those 
things that are not fitting; being filled with 
all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetous- 
ness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, 
strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, back- 
biters, haters of God, insolent, haughty, 
boastful, inventors of evil things, disobe- 
dient to parents, without understanding, 
covenant-breakers, without natural affection, 
unmerciful; who knowing the ordinance of 
God, that they who practice such things are 
worthy of death, not only do the same, but 
also consent with them that practice them." 
Many other passages though not so exten- 
sive in their particulars, are equally explicit, 
as to the shockingly depraved and deplorable 



132 Regeneration — Conversion. 

condition to which sin degrades the human 
soul. See also 2 Pet. ii. 10-15. 

The philosophy of moral agency, sus- 
tained also by scripture, presents the case in 
this way. Man is tripartite. (See Lecture 
II. ) He is constituted of soul, body and spirit. 
The soul is the inner man, the real man, 
the man himself. It is the soul that says 
I, I am, I think, I feel, I will. The body 
is the medium through which the soul holds 
communion with the material world. The 
spirit in the medium through which the soul 
holds communion with the spirit-world. 
The sinner is the bondservant of the flesh. 
John viii. 34, ' ' Every one that committeth 
sin is the bondservant of sin." Rom. vi. 16, 
"To whom ye present yourselves as bond- 
servants unto obedience, his bondservants ye 
are whom ye obey." Rom. viii. 6, "The 
minding of the flesh is death." Rom. viii. 7, 
"The minding of the flesh is enmity against 
God," This bondage, though contracted 
voluntarily and continued voluntarily, 
allbeit the judgment disapproves and the 
conscience is far from being quiet, is the 
most gauling, abject and tyrannical known. 



Regeneration — Conversion. 133 

Rom. vii. 15, 18, 19, 22-24, " Not what I 
would, that do 1 practice; but what I hate, 
that do I. In my flesh dwelleth no good 
thing; for to will is present with me, but to 
do that which is good is not. For the good 
which I would I do not; but the evil which 
I would not, that I practice. For I delight 
in the law of God after the inward man; 
but I see a different law in my members, 
warring against the law of my mind, and 
bringing me into captivity under the law of 
sin which is in my members. "O, wretched 
man that I am! who shall deliver me out of 
the body of this death?" This language is 
very strong, but I apprehend it does not 
overstate the facts in the case. The re- 
peated failures of those who undertake their 
own reformation, as well as the oft repeated 
confession, "I cannot break myself of 
this bad habit," are strongly confirmatory 
of a state of things that is in the highest 
degree deplorable. The apostle Paul says, 
Gal. v. 17, "The flesh lusteth against the 
spirit and the spirit against the flesh; for 
these are contrary the one to the other; so 
that ye may not do the things that ye would." 



t 3 4 Regeneration — Conversion. 

These passages, and there are others to 
the same import, clearly represent a state 
of inability that is with difficulty reconcila- 
ble with the voluntary and accountable con- 
dition of the wretched sinner, in this state 
of bondage. To admit that he cannot 
escape would be admitting that he is no 
longer accountable, no longer sinful, for re- 
maining in it; no longer a moral agent. 
This will never do. If that is the case, you 
may as well proclaim the gospel to the 
beasts of the field as to him. My solution 
of the difficulty is this. I admit the full 
force of the declaration of the sinner's inab- 
ility, as found in these passages; but I 
claim that while he may not be able, in and 
of himself, to break the gauling chains of 
the miserable death in which he is bound 
and in which he groans, he is still able to 
" lay hold of the hope set before us " in the 
gospel. Though dead, life is within his 
reach. "God hath given to us eternal life, 
and that life is in his Son;" and that Son 
stands by his side, able and willing to speak 
the life-giving word, whenever he will lend a 
willing ear. A drowning man may be unable 



Regeneration — Conversion. 135 

to climb upon the deck of a passing vessel 
and save himself; but he may still be able 
to seize a rope that is thrown to him and be 
lifted safely to the deck by another. If he 
refuse to avail himself of this proffered assist- 
ance, he alone is responsible. He will re- 
main in his perishing condition voluntarily. 
Thus the inability of the sinner to deliver 
himself from his bondage does not excuse 
him for perishing. If he perish, it will be 
because he will not choose to be saved. 
The Savior is within his reach; he has but 
to look and live. 

2. Every one must see, at a glance, 
that this state of heart and mode of life 
"must" be changed, before there can be 
any happiness or even peace to such a char- 
acter. ' ' The wicked are like the troubled 
sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters cast 
up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith 
my God, to the wicked." It was for this 
reason that Jesus said, "Ye must be born 
again." 

3. It is also manifest that the change to 
be wrought, effecting a reconciliation be- 
tween God, man's Father and Sovereign, 



136 Regeneratio7i — Conversion. 

and men individually, who are in this- state 
of alienation and rebellion, must take place 
in the rebel, not in his Lord and King. 
The government must announce the condi- 
tions of reconciliation; and the rebel must 
comply with them. The sinner must be- 
come reconciled to God, not God to the 
sinner. 

4. God, as head of the government, 
realizing the helplessness and hopelessness, 
as well as the stubbornness and pride of the 
sinner, having also a father's anxiety for his 
welfare and happiness, in addition to having 
already satisfied Justice through the atoning 
sacrifice, takes the initiative, in effecting his 
practical reformation, by first issuing his 
proclamation of pardon to all who will lay 
down the arms of their rebellion, and hum- 
bly, and penitently take the oath of alle- 
giance; and secondly, by the work of the 
Holy Spirit. 1 Pet. 1.3, "Blessed be the 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who according to his great mercy begat us 
again unto a living hope." 

5. In the regeneration of the heart of 
the sinner, the first practical act is the be- 



Regeneration — Conversion. 137 

getting of a new life by the Spirit. The 
first meaning of the word gennao is to 
beget. It is found forty-one times in the 
first sixteen verses of the first chapter of 
Mathew's gospel, and frequently in other 
places in the New Testament. When fath- 
erhood is referred to, this is the word uni- 
versally used. In the passive voice, it also 
means to be born. In this usage it applies 
to motherhood. In recognition of this be- 
getting, theologians, up to quite recently, 
held that the whole process of regeneration 
was effected in the hearts of those who were 
predestinated to be saved; and that the sin- 
ner could do nothing towards his own salva- 
tion until this regeneration was thus effected. 
As soon as the philosophy of moral agency 
came to be better understood, the impossi- 
bility of this hypothesis became apparent, 
and the doctrine was rejected, yielding place, 
however to another error, not quite so re- 
pulsive, but still failing to account for all 
the phenomena frequently manifest at this 
point of the sinner's experience. 

Many persons who have been converted, 
and many others, who have not been con- 



138 Regeneration — Conversion. 

verted, have been conscious of a quickening 
of their moral sensibilities, at times and un- 
der circumstances that rendered it impossi- 
ble to trace their origin to any other than a 
spiritual source. This has occurred both in 
Christian and in heathen lands. Men and 
women, who were far removed from all 
Christian influences, and had for years 
known no serious impressions of a religious 
nature, have suddenly experienced such an 
awakening of conscience, and realized such 
a consciousness of their accountability to 
God, and their sinfulness in his sight, as 
gave them no rest day nor night, until they 
went to him with their burden, sought his 
pardoning grace, and covenanted with him 
to lead a new life. Several instances of 
this kind have come under my own personal 
observation; and missionaries among idola- 
trous heathen have found cases of a similar 
awakening among those who have never 
heard of salvation through the Christian's 
Savior and the Christian's God. 

Now, although positive proof-texts on 
this point are few, collateral evidence, both 
scriptural and rational, besides the expe- 



Regeneration — Conversion. 139 

riences mentioned above, are abundant. 
The fact that the prodigal son, " came to 
himself" is no evidence that the Holy Spirit 
did not use his starving, wretched, de- 
graded condition, as means to awaken in 
his soul the realization of his folly and wick- 
edness, and thus prompt the remembrance 
of the pleasant home of his father, where 
there "was bread enough and to spare." 
No new facts had come to his knowledge. 
These thoughts had, undoubtedly, often 
crossed his mind before. Why did they 
impress him so deeply at that time as to 
conquer his pride, and make him willing to 
humbly confess, "Father, I have sinned, 
and am no more worthy to be called thy 
son! " Was there nothing supernatural about 
this? 

Again, is not this "just like God?" Did 
he not send his Son "to seek and to save 
that which was lost?" and when the Son left 
the world, did he not tell his disciples, "It 
is expedient for you that I go away; for if I 
go not away, the Comforter will not come 
unto you; but if I go, I will send him unto 
you?" Now, if the Savior came to seek the 



140 Regeneration — Conversion. 

lost, and if the presence of the Comforter, 
rich is the Holy Spirit, " is better for the 
world than the personal presence of the Son, 
must he not be engaged in the same work 
: : sec k i n g : he lost? and if he seeks the lost, 
is it not he who first quickens in the heart 
of the sinner the germs of a new life? ' *You 
did he quicken (make alive) when ye were 
dead through your trespasses and sins." 
"God, when we were dead through our 
:re5ri55r5 :-i:krzef :s -Dead!" Can 

the dead bring themselves to life? and can 
they do anything until they are made alive? 
One consideration more. *e5-= sl:i. 
: man can come to me, except the 
Father that sent me draw him. " N : 

This must include sinners of e 
period of time and of every part of the 
eart h — all si e : s N : if a divine influ- 
ence is necessary to induce a sinner to come 
to Christ, what is that influence, if it be not 
of the Holy Spirit? and, if such an influence 
must be exerted upon the sinner to bring 
him to Christ, when shall it be exerted, if 
not as the initiatory act of his coming? This 
conclusion is still further confirmed by an- 



Regeneration — Conversion. 141 

other passage that is directly and positively 
to the point: "And he (the Comforter), 
when he is come, will convict the world in 
respect of sin." This must refer to what 
has always been known as conviction of sin, 
and which every regenerated person knows 
as the initial experience, leading the entire 
procession of experiences through which he 
or she was led in passing ' 4 from darkness to 
light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God." 

In view of all these considerations, and 
more might be mentioned, we believe we 
are safe in maintaining that there is no other 
influence in the world that is able to beget 
in the sinful soul that "Godly sorrow, that 
worketh repentance unto salvation." Many 
are the means that the Spirit employs, as 
instruments to this end, and that are usu- 
ally the only means recognized by the sin- 
ner; but, though they had often been im- 
pressed upon the mind before, they were 
never effectual until that special, favored 
time. It was then the Spirit of the Lord 
that emphasized the preached word, an ex- 
hortation, a prayer, a convert's testimony, 



142 Regeneration — Conversion. 

an affliction, -a remarkable escape from dan- 
ger or death, and fastened it (< asa nail in a 
sure place," giving the soul no rest until re- 
pentance and regeneration were complete. 

This discussion has been somewhat pro- 
tracted, though not more so than its import- 
ance demands, but we cannot leave it until 
we add that this conviction is not special; 
that is, it is not confined to those who yield 
to it and are saved. Jesus said, "lam the 
light of the world." John said, "That was 
the true light that lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world," and since he "tasted 
death for every man," and since the Spirit 
is pushing to completion the work he inau- 
gurated, it must be that no one is left un- 
warned. I believe that even heathen, who 
have no knowledge of Christ as the Savior 
of the world, or of the true God, are often 
touched by a conscience that is quickened 
by the Holy Spirit. Thus the initiatory 
step, or act, in the regeneration of the sin- 
ner, is the quickening of conscience by the 
Holy Spirit. 

6. The second step, or act, in this extra- 
ordinary work, is by the sinner himself. 



Regeneration — Conversion. 143 

This is the most critical moment of his life. 
His conduct, at this juncture, will, in all 
probability, determine his destiny. I do 
not say he never will have another call, but 
I do say he may not. The issue is whether 
he will heed this warning, whether he will 
encourage this germ of a new life, by 
thoughtful attention, conscientious consid- 
eration of the facts in the case, and pursue 
the course of wisdom and reason; or whether 
he will banish thought, smother that life- 
germ, resist the Spirit, harden his heart, 
and plunge into a deeper depravity of soul 
and a more reckless course of life than he 
ever knew before. If he will be saved, now 
is the time to ' ' make his calling and elec- 
tion sure." God elects those to be saved 
who elect him, choose Christ to be their Sa- 
vior. This is the moment for that choice. 
"I will arise and go to my Father." 

7. Precisely at this juncture, if the per- 
son has been properly instructed, will occur 
that penitence, that " Godly sorrow," that 
is of such vital importance, in securing a 
genuine work of grace in the heart. It is 
seriously to be feared that a large percent- 



144 Regeneration — Conversion. 

age of the evangelistic work that has been 
done in these later years has been deficient 
at this point. The "exceeding sinfulness 
of sin " has received but little attention. 
The young want to be saved, of course; 
everybody wants to be saved; and they are 
told to take Christ for their Savior. To 
this they assent, and are then assured that 
they are saved. Not one word is spoken 
about sin; not a word about a confession; 
they are not even told to pray, to ■ ' call up- 
on the name of the Lord " that they may be 
saved; to cry out, like the publican, " God 
be merciful to me, a sinner." When we in- 
quire respecting "penitential tears," we are 
told these have never committed any great 
crimes. It is not to be expected that they 
will feel the sense of sin that an old and 
hardened offender would. Now, I pronounce 
all that a fearful if not a fatal delusion. If 
there is any such thing as ' ' daubing with 
untempered mortar; crying peace, peace, 
when their is no peace, " I am sure that is it. 
The most amiable and unoffending child in 
the world, if properly instructed, will real- 
ize a state of mind and heart, for which it 



Regeneration — Conversion. 145 

will feel deep penitence, ' ' Godly sorrow, 
that worketh repentance unto salvation.' 1 
An amiable disposition is not a Christian 
heart and purpose. Every soul "must be 
born again." Take Jesus' word for that; 
and neither delude yourself nor others. 
"If the blind guide the blind, both shall 
fall into a pit." Too great stringency on 
that point is better than too great laxity. 
It is a sense of sinfulness, contrasted with 
the pure and perfect holiness of God, that 
humbles and subdues the soul, and makes it 
like that of < ' a little child. " 

It is to be deplored that this subduing 
and contrition of the heart does not always 
occur at this point as it should. This is the 
beginning of the end. Softening and hard- 
ening originate at the same point, and this 
is the point. This is the first question to 
be decided by the sinner, Will I yield, or 
will I resist? For the yielding, or the stub- 
born hardening of the will, at this point, 
the individual alone is responsible. Here 
he enters ' ' the straight gate that leadeth to 
life," or continues in " the broad way that 

leadeth to destruction." 
10 



1 46 Regeneration — Conversion. 

8. Repentance is next in order. What 
is it? 

This word occurs frequently, both in the 
Old and New Testament, still there is 
scarcely another word respecting whose ex- 
act meaning and use, in this cennection, 
there is -so much confusion. Most people 
suppose it to mean penitence, as denned 
above. This is a great mistake. The 
word metanoia, found twenty-four times 
in the New Testament, and translated 
repentance every time, contains, etymo- 
logically, no intimation of penitance. Its 
literal signification is a change of mind, a 
change of purpose; and this is its uniform 
meaning in the New Testament. When it 
is used in connection with no word that sig- 
nifies sorrow, that idea may be implied, 
since sorrow for a wrong course of life must 
naturally precede a turning from it; but no 
hint of penitence is contained in the word 
itself. Using the word in this sense, the 
forming of a new purpose is the step next 
in order, after coming to one's self and real- 
izing the foil}-, the wickedness, of one's pre- 
vious life. The purpose formed is, " I will 



Regeneration — Conversion. 147 

arise and go to my Father." By the grace 
of God, I must, I will forsake my sins and 
lead a new life. Henceforth God shall be 
my King, and his will shall be the law of my 
life. 

This is the strongest, the most solemn, 
the most unalterable vow the soul ever makes 
or can ever make. No other contract, or 
agreement, known among men, is so unal- 
terable as this. Its import is, "I have 
opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I can- 
not go back." Evangelists should make 
note of this, and should give clear, positive 
instruction upon this point, made emphatic 
by oft repetition. Partnerships, business en- 
gagements, contracts among men, even the 
sacred oath of marriage, may, for sufficient 
reason, be annulled; but this never. No 
sufficient reason can ever be found for an- 
nulling the soul's oath of allegiance to God. 
That vow can never be broken, except at 
the expense of great guilt. 

9. Immediately following this change 
of purpose, repentance, comes the earnest 
prayer for pardon. The promise is, ' 'Who- 
soever shall call upon the name of the Lord 



1 4S Regeneration — Conversion. 

shall be saved." The prayer is, "God be 
merciful to me a sinner; " •• Lord save me. 
I perish: " ' 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
do ?" The acceptable prayer, at this point. 
must include three things: confession, which 
implies penitence; supplication for pardon; 
and submission to the will of God, which is 
the oath of loyal allegiance. These are the 
only conditions on which any government, 
human or divine, can safely listen to a 
prayer for pardon. Thus it is that "Godly 
sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation." 
I cannot pass this point without adding 
another important suggestion to those who 
are endeavoring to point the sinner to ' ' the 
Lamb of God. that taketb away the sin of 
the world." Tell such a soul to pray, to 
pray aloud, whether in secret or in public. 
Ordinarily no other instruction is necessarv. 
The penitent who prays, and prays earnestly 
and persistently, will find the light; and 
when he has found it, it will be "the true 
light.". Instruction of any other kind is 
only necessary, when the soul has fallen 
into a snare. The soul that prays will usu- 
ally trust. If it does not. then instruct it 



Regeneration — Conversion. 1 49 

on that point, but not until then. The 
usual custom of instructing inquirers to 
"trust Jesus," without knowing whether 
they are in a penitent, repentant or prayer- 
ful state of mind, will only at best, "heal 
the hurt of the daughter of my people 
slightly," where they should be and may be 
healed fully and soundly. 

10. Answer to prayer. No further pro- 
gress can be made in this succession of 
events, until this prayer is answered. Should 
pardon of past sins be denied, hope and 
faith would expire together, and eternal de- 
spair take their place. This, however, is 
an impossibility, under the circumstances 
supposed. No sincere, earnest prayer can 
be righteously spurned by a government 
that has promised pardon, when the condi- 
tions of such pardon have been fully and 
honestly complied with. No sooner does 
the prayer "God be merciful to me a sin- 
ner" go up from a sincere heart than the 
edict goes forth, ' « Thy sins are forgiven 
thee; go in peace and sin no more." 

11. Now is the time for faith; that is, 
now is the time to speak of faith, to make 



150 Regeneration — Conversio?i. 

faith a specialty. Penitent for sin; fully 
resolved on reformation of life; realizing his 
unworthiness and helplessness; yielding his 
will to the will of God; he may now confi- 
dently "trust Jesus." Now he may plead 
the promises, " Him that cometh to me, I 
will in nowise cast out;" "If we confess 
our sins, he is faithful and righteous to for- 
give us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 
unrighteousness. " 

Let me add at this point, this is by no 
means the first exercise of faith, on the part 
of the sinner. At each step of this series 
of experiences through which he has passed, 
he has exercised faith, but at each step 
faith in a different thing. First he believed 
he was a sinner; then he believed that God 
is merciful, and that penitence is acceptable 
to him; then that it would not be a vain 
and fruitless act to repent; then he hoped, 
at least, that God would hear his earnest, 
penitent prayer; now he hears, by the ear 
of faith, the voice of the Savior saying, 
" Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace 
and sin no more." This is the cosummat- 
ing act of faith on his part. 



Regeneration — Conversion. 151 

At this point faith seems to be more im- 
portant and worthy of special mention, 
because it is exercised at the moment of 
his greatest extremity, when temptation to 
doubt and despair is greatest. The sense 
of his sinfulness and unworthiness has been 
growing more and more intense as the work 
of reformation has progressed, until he now 
realizes that it will require a miracle of 
mercy to save him. Like Paul, he thinks 
himself the chief of sinners. Can he now 
believe that "whosoever" can possibly be 
made to include him? Hence his cry is the 
wail of expiring hope, " Lord save or I per- 
perish." Under these circumstances, faith 
means something, and is worthy of special 
mention. The Savior seems to say just 
then, "Be it unto thee according to thy 
faith." "All things are possible to him 
that believeth." The response of faith is, 
"Lord I believe;" and immediately the bil- 
lows of fearful emotion that have agitated 
his soul subside. Peace reigns. " Being 
justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The 
sinner is born again. The atonement 



152 Regeneration — Conversion. 

is now complete. He is reconciled to 
God. 

11. The witness of the Spirit. The sig- 
nificance of the witness of the Spirit, at 
this point, is very great. The experience 
through which the soul has just passed is 
the most extraordinary ever known to man. 
It is not a trifling matter to be raised from 
death to life; to be "delivered out of the 
power of darkness, and translated into the 
kingdom of God's dear Son." The power 
of "the prince of this world" has been 
broken, but the tempter is still lingering 
around. The soul that was "a cage of 
unclean birds" is "swept and garnished," 
but it is "empty." The great question at 
this moment is, Shall the demon that has 
just been cast out return and, finding the 
soul unoccupied, "with seven other spirits 
more evil than himself, enter in and dwell 
there?" or shall the high purpose of the soul 
be strengthened by a voice within witnessing 
with his spirit that he is a child of God? The 
soul that is just entering upon its regener- 
ated life should never rest satisfied until the 
witness of the spirit is clear, and it is able 



Regeneration — Conversion. 153 

to "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." 
Evangelists and pastors should be more 
particular at this point than they usually 
are. The steps of progress, as described in 
Rom. v. 1, 2, are first peace, then steadfast- 
ness, then joy in hope, which is followed, 
when stronger grown, by joy "in tribula- 
tions also." "Being justified by faith we 
have peace with God through our Lord 
Jesus Christ; through whom also we have 
had our access by faith into this grace 
wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope 
of the glory of God." 

Such, or similar to these, are the expe- 
riences by which the soul is exercised, with 
more or less distinctness according to the 
temperament of the person and the degree 
of intelligence with which he observes the 
exercises of his own mind, in passing from 
death into life; the whole constituting the 
change, the experience, that is properly and 
truly called REGENERATION. 

12. Lest I should be misunderstood rer 
specting the universality of the recognition 
of each step of this experience, as given 
above, let me say, I believe there are many 



154 Regeneration — Conversion^ 

in these days, and probably always have 
been, who are led to accept Christ as 
their Savior, and enter into acceptable rela- 
tions with him, in whose experiences these 
successive steps are not all distinctly marked. 
This is owing, not so much to the absence of 
the facts as to a difference in the power and 
habit of introspection. Some people seem. 
to take no cognizance of the phenomena of 
their own minds, while others allow no im- 
portant mental change to occur without 
their notice. This difference lies in their 
constitutions and habits. In every case of 
true regeneration, however, these steps will 
be taken, whether observed or not. 

13. A few words now respecting conver- 
sion will close this elaborate discussion. 
Conversion, as stated at the outset, means a 
turning around. It may refer, in part, to- 
the acts of penitence andrepentence already 
mentioned, performed by the convicted soul, 
but its chief application is to the change 
that takes place in the outward life of one 
who has experienced regeneration. This 
change, as is well known, is often very 
marked, and always more or less observable. 



Regeneration — Conversion. 155 

Even when deportment seemed as perfect 
as a human life could well be, before regen- 
eration, a marked change will be observable 
in the spirit, the heart with which every- 
thing is done. Regeneration is the change 
of heart; conversion the change of the out- 
ward life. 



LECTURE VIII. 



ANGELS. 

Wherever in the universe of God there 
are intelligent beings, they are and must be 
moral agents. The only class of finite be- 
ings, outside of our own race, of which 
we have any well-defined knowledge, is 
the angels. Of cherubim and seraphim 
we have but little idea. Whether they dif- 
fer from angels so radically as to constitute 
them a different order of intelligences, we 
do not know. One thing we do know, how- 
ever; if they are intelligent beings, endowed 
with the power of choice under an alterna- 
tive, they are moral agents, and must be 
subject to all the conditions of the angels. 

Our first inquiry is, Who are the angels? 

i. A very common misapprehension, 
doubtless of long standing, is that the an- 
gels are the souls of mortals who have 
departed this life. This is a grave and by 
no means a harmless mistake. A few years 
ago the children of our Sunday-Schools 



Angela 157 

were taught to sing, ' ' I want to be an an- 
gel." It was wrong. Men, women and 
children will never be angels; nor will angels 
ever be mortal. 

2. Angels are a distinct class of intelli- 
gent beings, finite but not mortal. By what 
means they were brought into existence, or 
of what substance they were created, is not 
even hinted in the scriptures. * ■ They 
neither marry, nor are given in marriage." 
nor are they subject to death; hence their 
number was permanently fixed from the time 
of their creation. 

3. Scripture allusions to them are numer- 
ous; and it is clearly intimated that their 
creation antedated that of man, and proba- 
bly antedated the creation of the material 
universe. When ' ' Jehovah answered Job 
out of the whirlwind," speaking of the time 
when the foundations of the earth were 
laid, he says, (Job xxxviii, 7), "Who laid 
the corner stones thereof, when the morn- 
ing stars sang together, and all the sons of 
God shouted for joy?" These '"morning 
stars" that sang together, and the "sons of 
God" who "shouted for joy" could have 



158 Angels. 

been no beings of whom we have knowl- 
edge, unless they were the angels. Of the 
many facts to which we might call attention 
respecting the angels, we have to do only, 
or mainly, with those that relate to them as 
moral agents. 

4. The angelic hosts are all moral 
agents. All the conditions of moral agency: 
intelligence, free will and opportunity, are 
theirs. As to the degree of their intelli- 
gence; though we have no direct and posi- 
tive information on the subject, we are 
probably justified in presuming that it is 
superior to that of man. It would not be 
natural to suppose that the beings who were 
created expressly to be God's messengers to 
men, would be an inferior grade of intelli- 
gences. We read of ' ' the angels that excel 
in strength." Doubtless this does not refer 
to physical strength alone, if indeed, it refers 
to it at all, but to superior might in every 
respect. 

The following argument is also clearly 
legitimate in regard to them. A finite mind 
knows nothing it has not learned, either by 
tuition, intuition or logical deduction. 






Angels. 159 

When it comes into being, it is an utter 
blank. It knows nothing. At any subse- 
quent period of its existence, the degree of 
its intelligence will be determined by the 
natural capacity with which it is endowed 
by the Creator, plus the amount it has 
learned, up to that time. Now, whatever 
may have been the natural capacity for in- 
telligence, with which angels were originally 
endowed, they have had ages of tuition and 
experience, that long before this time has 
given them a mental development and 
amount of information utterly inconceivable 
to us. Their degree of intelligence at the 
present time, however, has nothing to do 
with the question of their moral agency. If, 
when they were created, they were capable 
of learning by precept, and understanding a 
command and the nature of an obligation, 
that is sufficient to fulfil the first condition 
of moral agency. 

The second condition, freedom of choice, 
the sovereign exercise of the will-power, is 
manifest from every fact we know respecting 
them, and will be abundantly apparent as 
we proceed. Of their opportunities, noth- 



160 Angels. 

ing seems necessary to be said. The power 
of choice, in the presence of a command to 
do or not to do, supplies all the necessary 
conditions of will in liberty, and necessitates 
moral action and moral character. Their 
alternative, like ours, is loyalty or disloyalty 
to God, their Creator and Sovereign. In 
this respect, they do not differ from men; 
but their loyalty or disloyalty will manifest 
itself under different circumstances. Its 
test may not be the gratification of a fleshly 
appetite, like that of Adam in the garden, 
or Jesus in the wilderness; but it may be 
ambition for preference or power, or a sug- 
gestion of presumption. 

5. The sad fact is very apparent that a 
large number of these first created, highly 
endowed, favorably situated "morning stars" 
"kept not their own principality, but left 
their proper habitation," and are "kept in 
everlasting bonds under darkness unto the 
judgment of the great day." Such an event 
is possible only to moral agents. Angels 
sinned, and, like other sinners, are under 
condemnation, "condemned already." 

6. What the form of temptation was, 



Angels. 161 

the form in which the great alternative 
came to them, is not stated in the scriptures; 
but to human reason there appears one form 
most probable, and, so far as I know, but 
one form has ever been suggested. That 
form is ambition. The second form in 
which temptation came to our Savior was 
the promise that the kingdoms of the world 
and the glory of them should be his, if he 
would worship, that is, exalt as supreme, 
Satan instead of God. This would natur- 
ally be the first appeal to disloyalty that 
would be presented to an intelligence not 
encumbered with the flesh, and having no 
fleshly appetites to gratify. 

Among the angels, as among men, there 
are undoubtedly different degrees of intel- 
ligence. Some have learned more than 
others. Some may have been more highly 
endowed than others; we cannot tell. 
Hence, some are superior to others in 
rank. Jude tells us of " Michael, the arch- 
angel." Daniel also says that Michael "is 
the great prince," and again, "one of the 
princes," which would plainly intimate that 

there are several princes, and that they 
11 



1 62 Angels. 

hold different grades. One ranks higher 
than another. Gabriel is mentioned under 
such circumstances as to plainly intimate 
that he also is one of the arch-angels, if not 
at the head of the whole angelic host. It 
was he who was commissioned to announce 
to Mary that she, of all the virgins of Is- 
rael, was chosen to be the mother of Jesus, 
the Savior of the world, the son of God. 
It would seem to be reasonable to suppose 
that the very chief of all the heavenly mes- 
sengers would be sent on this greatest of 
all the missions on which angels could be 
employed. 

It matters not to us which of these may 
have held precedence, or whether there was 
yet another, who was at one time of still 
higher rank than they were, but who dis- 
tinguished himself in a transaction so shame- 
ful, so disgraceful, so harmful withall to the 
rest and to us, that the lofty appellation 
by which he may have been first known, 
has never been revealed to us; but who 
is known to us by a name most appropri- 
ate, most expressive of his diabolical his- 
tory. That detestable name is ho diabolos 



Angels. 163 

the devil, also called Satan. He is also 
designated by many other dishonorable epi- 
thets. 

It is. then, but natural, that is. accord- 
ins: to the nature of a finite mind, that, 
finding himself thus endowed with ability 
and influence superior to the rest of the an- 
gelic host, he should deem it his right, or, 
at least, that it was gratifying to his ambi- 
tion, to assume authority over them; and 
finding this disapproved by him. '-whose 
right it is" to rule, he should attempt to 
subvert his government, and enthrone him- 
self supreme. This view of the case, taken 
in connection with his free agency, and 
with the same freedom of choice on the 
part of all the res: :: the angelic host, will 
fully account for the fact that he should 
first rebel, then lead astray a large multi- 
tude, though but a small part, of the inferior 
grade of ang-els. This is the way such 
things work among men; why not among 
angels? These constitute "the devil and 
his angels." 

A sufficiently full account of the fall of 
the angels to suggest to a thinker the real 



164 Angels. 

nature and result of this rebellion is found 
in Rev. xii. 7-9. The war in heaven there 
described was, as is generally assumed, a 
contention that arose for supremacy, in 
which Michael and his angels were loyal to 
God, and contended against "the dragon 
and his angels," finally overcoming them, 
and forcing them with their intrigues out of 
the holy city. ' « The great dragon was cast 
down, the old serpent, that is called the 
Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole 
world; he was cast down to the earth, and 
his angels were cast down with him." 

7. We have, then, two classes of an- 
gels; the Holy Angels and the Fallen An- 
gels. What are their employments ? 

(1) The holy angels are "ministering 
spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake 
of them that shall inherit salvation." In- 
stances of this angelic service are found re- 
corded in the Scriptures, from the days of 
Abraham to the close of the revelation made 
to John on the Isle of Patmos; and who can 
find evidence that their ministrations are 
not just as common since as they were dur- 
ing all that period ? Several passages re- 



Angeh. 165 

specting them plainly intimate that they be- 
long to every age, and to the people of God 
in all lands. Speaking of children, Jesus 
says, ' ' Their angels do always behold the 
face of my Father who is in heaven;" and 
David says "The angel of Jehovah encamp- 
eth round about them that fear him, and 
delivereth them." 

(2) The fallen angels were "cast down 
to the earth," "having great wrath," "to 
deceive the nations that are in the four cor- 
ners of the earth." This seems to have been 
their business from the time the serpent be- 
guiled Eve in the garden of Eden until the 
present; and doubtless will be until they are 
11 cast into the lake of fire and brimstone," 
at " the judgment of the great day." 

8. Here we are brought again face to 
face with certain questions of great moment, 
that have long puzzled honest and earnest 
inquirers, and have furnished the devil a 
standing place, from which many a success- 
ful attack has been made against the truth, 
the church, and the cause of righteousness. 
It is for the very purpose of giving positive, 
truthful, and I hope final answers to this 



1 66 Angels. 

class of question, answers that are sustained 
by both Scripture and philosophy, that I 
have undertaken the writing of these lec- 
tures. The doctrine of moral agency fur- 
nishes the key that unlocks and throws wide 
open the portals of the dark chamber in 
which most of these mysteries have been 
hidden for ages, and brings to light the glit- 
tering, blazing diamonds of truth, whose ex- 
istence has been long suspected, but never 
satisfactorily and positively proven. The 
questions that I shall present are not all of 
this character. The answers to some of 
them have always been plain enough, but 
are now made more positive and indisputa- 
ble than ever before. 

Respecting the fallen angels, we note the 
following : 

(i ) Is the devil, and are his angels, ac- 
tual, living, thinking, choosing, planning 
personalities ? 

My answer to this question is positively, 
unhesitatingly, indubitably, Yes! but let 
that pass. The proper way to instruct those 
who ask questions is to lead them to the 
facts that will enable them to see the an- 



Angels. 167 

swers themselves. When one answers his 
own question, he is much more likely to be 
satisfied with the answer than when he takes 
the ipse dixit of the best teacher in the 
world. 

Let us read together Dan. viii. 15-19. 
4 ' Behold there stood before me as the ap- 
pearance of a man. And I heard a man's 
voice between toe banks of Ulai, which 
called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to 
understand the vision. So he came near 
where I stood; and when he came I was 
afraid and fell upon my face; but he said 
unto me, Understand, O son of man; for at 
the time of the end shall be the vision. 
Now as he was speaking with me, I was in 
a deep sleep on my face toward the ground; 
but he touched me and set me upright. And 
he said, Behold I will make thee know what 
shall be in the last end of the indignation." 
What think you? was this "appearance of a 
man," whose name was Gabriel, who talked 
intelligently with Daniel, who touched him 
and set him upright — was this man an actual 
personality, or was it a myth, a fancy, a 
dream ? An examination of the context, in 



1 68 Angels. 

which this passage is found, will show that 
this was no part of Daniel's vision. It was 
an open-face reality, giving him an under- 
standing of a vision that he had seen, and 
of which he had "sought for the meaning." 
Several other passages might be referred 
to; but one is sufficient. Let us read Luke 
i. 26: "The angel Gabriel was sent from 
God unto a city of Galilee, named Naza- 
reth." This angel Gabriel talked with the 
virgin Mary, and told her that she would 
be the mother of Jesus, who should "be 
called the Son of the Most High," and who 
should "reign over the house of Jacob for- 
ever." Is there any doubt of the personal- 
ity of Gabriel in these transactions ? Is 
there any doubt of the personality of ' ' Mi- 
chael the archangel, when contending with 
the devil he disputed about the body of 
Moses" (Jude 9)? In fact, is there any 
doubt that all the holy angels are living, 
intelligent beings, persons? It would be 
difficult for one who has any idea of moral 
agency to conceive of a "holy" being who 
is not an intelligent person; and it is equally 
impossible to conceive of an unholy, that is 



Angels. 169 

a wicked, being who is not an intelligent 
person. If the holy angels are persons, are 
not the fallen angels persons too ? If these 
were persons before they fell, are they not 
persons still ? and will they not always be 
persons ? The truth is, there is no notion 
with which skeptical minds have befogged 
their own intelligence and reason, that is 
more unreasonable and absurd than that 
demons are not actual, living, intelligent 
persons. Listen then seriously, soberly, 
rationally, diligently, to the warning of Pe- 
ter (1 Pet. v. 8), "Be sober, be watchful; 
your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, 
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 
whom withstand steadfast in your faith." 
With this idea of personality, every men- 
tion of the devil and demons, in the Scrip- 
tures, is in perfect harmony. Not an idea 
of any thing else is even fairly inferable, in 
a single instance. The truth is, ' ' He was a 
murderer from the beginning, and standeth 
not in the truth, because there is no truth in 
him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh 
of his own; for he is a liar and the father 
thereof;" and this idea, that there is no 



170 Angels. 

personal devil, is one of his most absurd, 
not even plausible, lies. Disbelief in a per- 
sonal devil is the first step on the shortest 
road to Atheism. The assumption is just as 
groundless and unreasonable as the assump- 
tion that there is no God. 

(2.) Another silly, unreasoning ques- 
tion, often asked, is, Who made the devil? 
The philosophy of moral agency answers 
this question also. With equal pertinence 
and propriety we may ask, Who made all 
the bad men, who have cursed the world 
since the day when Cain lifted murderous 
hands upon his brother? Who made Gui- 
teau, the murderer of President Garfield? 
He was once an innocent babe in the arms 
of a loving mother, a God-given child, yet 
God did not make him a murderer. So 
God made the angels innocent, and each 
one became loyal and holy, or disloyal and 
unholy, in the exercise of his own power of 
choice. These latter we call devils, de- 
mons, fiends, and such they are, but by no 
fault of their Maker. Their leader is ha 
diabolos, the devil; "his angels" are prop- 
erly called demons, daimonia, or daimones\ 



Angels. 17 r 

(3.) We read that "all things work 
together for good to them that love God;" 
what good was accomplished by this apos- 
tacy of angels and war in heaven ? To this 
question we answer, Every moral agent 
must be tested, in order that he may form a 
fixed character. As the result of this test- 
ing of the loyalty of the angels, those who 
refused to be led away from their loyalty to 
God are now firmly fixed in their purpose of 
loyalty. Hence they are called holy angels. 
They have a fixed and reliable character. 
Now they can be trusted anywhere. No 
influence in the universe can dissuade them 
from their purpose. They have passed 
through the severest test they will ever 
have, and have stood the test gloriously 
and triumphantly. There is no danger of 
their revolt, under any circumstances. Not 
only can God trust them; but other angels 
can trust them, and we can trust them. 
This is a great and unmistakable good, both 
to them and to all who have any occasion 
for their services. 

The same thing has taken place and be- 
come known in regard to those who felL 



172 Angels. 

Their character is also fixed, and published 
to all who have need to be warned against 
them. They chose to rebel against God 
under the strongest influences possible to 
deter and prevent their apostacy. That 
choice was deliberate. It will never be 
changed. No influence stronger than those 
they have already spurned and defied can 
be brought to bear upon them. No new 
light of truth with which they were unac- 
quainted can ever fall upon their minds or 
hearts. They are lost; 4 ' kept in everlasting 
bonds" of stubborn resistance to the will of 
God, "under darkness, unto the judgment 
of the great day. " 

I quoted above Peter's warning; let me 
add mine. No poor, inconsiderate mortal 
can possibly be guilty of greater folly than 
when he thinks light of the infernal influ- 
ences to which he is constantly exposed, 
and against which he should be constantly 
watchful and in firmest attitude of resist- 
ance. 

II Satan with malicious art, 
Watches each unguarded heart." 

Demons, who were endowed at the com- 



Angels. 173 

mencement of their existence with angelic 
capacities for knowledge, growth, and influ- 
ence over others, and who have had almost 
six thousand years of successful experience 
in leading unsuspecting, and even watchful, - 
souls into sin, must have become very art- 
ful and skillful in their diabolical work, ere 
this time. Let us then be on our guard 
against all those influences, "whose coming 
is according to the workings of Satan, with 
all power and signs and lying wonders, and 
with all deceit of unrighteousness for them 
that perish; because they received not the 
love of the truth, that they might be saved." 
"Resist the devil, and he will flee from 
you." 

(4) One of the most sensible of the 
questions asked on this subject, and one of 
the easiest to answer, in the light of the na- 
ture of moral agency, is, Why were the 
fallen angels'cast down to the earth, to tempt 
the new, innocent, ignorant, unsuspecting 
race of man ? Can any good be traced to 
this act ? This is a question to which every 
one, young and old, should have a ready 
answer. The following is my way of pre- 



174 Angels. 

senting it. ■ It was that they might accom- 
plish in man just what they had already ac- 
complished among the angels. It was as 
necessary, as important, that men should be 
tried, that they should have established 
characters, that their loyalty to God and to 
the welfare of the race to which they be- 
longed, or their disloyalty, should be mani- 
fested, as it was that these facts and dispo- 
sitions in the angels should be manifested. 
Men were created for trusts, for labors, for 
influences, for responsibilities, as great, as 
important, as were the angels, perhaps even 
greater. This is a fact that most of the race, 
up to this time, seem to have never thought 
of, much less to have seriously compre- 
hended. It is as important to know whom 
to trust, and whom not to trust, among men 
as among angels. God knew all this, and 
chose this manner of testing the loyalty, and 
showing the disloyalty, of each individual of 
our race; at least of each and every one 
who attains the estate of accountability. 

Doubtless this was the wisest and best 
method that could be devised for this pur- 
pose; else he who is infinite in wisdom and 



Angels. 175 

goodness would not have chosen it. This is 
a point that should be always assumed, God 
has made no mistakes. Moreover, it makes 
no difference to us. If the testing had not 
been done in this way, it would have been 
done in some other way, equally unwelcome, 
probably more disagreeable and objectiona- 
ble. Let us be content. 



LECTURE IX. 



THE GODHEAD. 

It has been said that "The proper study 
of mankind is man." That is true, but it is 
only a part of the truth. While man fur- 
nishes an interesting and profitable study for 
the scientist, the humanitarian, the moralist 
and the historian, the careful study of God 
is still more important and profitable. Let 
us not shrink now from a free, unrestrained, 
unrestricted approach to this study, because 
God is Infinite and we are finite; nor be- 
cause God is Holy and we are sinful. The 
more we know about God, the better for us. 
Many are so filled with awe and reverence 
at the very thought of God, that they ex- 
claim with ignorant and unwise Zophar, 
"Canst thou by searching find out God?" 
and, resting there, remain in ignorance. 

Whatever there may be about the Un- 
caused Cause of all things that is "past 
finding out," there is much respecting nim 



The Godhead. 177 

that may be known as clearly and as posi- 
tively as respecting ourselves; and what we 
may know of him is, if possible, of more 
interest and of more importance to us than 
what we know of ourselves. Bear in mind, 
also, that, though the prophet said, "Ver- 
ily thou art a God that hideth thyself," yet 
God shrinks from no investigation. He is 
not only willing but anxious that we should 
know all about him that we can find out, by 
most diligent inquiry, closest observation, 
most profound investigation, and greatest 
intimacy. While vain and idle speculation, 
guesses, and unfounded assumptions should 
not be indulged in nor encouraged in any 
line of inquiry, there is not a fact hidden, 
neither in his works, nor in his essence, nor in 
his mode of existence, nor in his methods of 
manifestation or operation, that God holds 
too sacred for our inquiry. We shall ap- 
proach this subject, then, with the same 
fearless freedom with which we would inquire 
whether the sun is the center of our solar 
system. 

The word "Godhead," as used in Col. 

ii. 9, "In him dwelleth all the fullness of 
12 



178 The Godhead. 

the Godhead;" is itself suggestive of a plu- 
rality of persons. If no other idea than 
that of unity had ever been entertained, as 
pertaining to the Deity, it is reasonable to 
suppose that but one name would have been 
given him, and that name would not have 
been Godhead. 

The plurality of persons in the Godhead 
is also clearly intimated in the name by 
which the Creator was first designated. 
That name, in the Hebrew language, is 
ELOHIM, and is in the plural number. It 
is found in the first verse of the book of 
Genesis, and is used as the name of God 
2222 times in the Old Testament. In Gen. 
i. 26, we read, "Let us make man in our 
image, after our likeness." These phrases, 
"our image, our likeness," I understand to 
refer to their individual moral agency, for 
this is the point of "likeness" between God 
and man, by which the fact of plurality is 
made still more emphatic. It is not the 
image of the One Infinite and Eternal, nor 
of the two conceived of as a unit, but of 
each individually. One other passage, Gen. 
iii. 22, "The man is become as one of us," 



The Godhead. 179 

is regarded by many commentators as even 
stronger evidence than the foregoing of plu- 
rality in the Godhead. Those who wish to 
avoid this conclusion insist that this is the 
pluralis excellentice, as rulers (and many 
others) use the plural pronoun we, instead 
of the singular I; but I think it is the plu- 
ralis personarum, the plural being used 
because it represents a plurality of per- 
sons. 

Of the persons comprehended in the 
Godhead, the self-existent Originator of all 
things (except himself) must be one; and, 
of course, the First. If the universe, either 
of matter or of spirit, shows evidences of 
design, he must be the Designer; if evi- 
dences of a plan, he is the Planner; if there 
is a display of wisdom and power, these 
must be attributes that are inherent in his 
nature. Thus we conclude, without the 
possibility of error, that the First Person in 
the Godhead is the Eternal, Infinite, Om- 
niscient, Omnipotent Deity — the Uncaused 
Cause of all things; who is, in the English 
language, called God. 

We are now prepared to make some 



180 The Godhead. 

inquiries respecting this First Person in the 
Godhead. 

Under this head, it is not our purpose to 
adduce evidences of the existence of God, 
but to notice certain facts concerning his 
attributes that seem obscure to some, and 
whose nature does not generally seem to be 
clearly understood. 

The attributes of God are of two kinds; 
Necessary and Moral. 

God's Necessary Attributes are those 
that belong to him of necessity, as con- 
trasted with those that are his from choice. 
They exist in his constitution. It is no 
irreverence to say that God could not divest 
himself of one of these attributes, if he 
wished to do so. I call these Necessary 
Attributes, instead of "Natural Attributes," 
because Moral Attributes are just as con- 
sistent with God's nature, just as natural to 
his constitution, as these are. Hence nat- 
ural and moral are not terms of contrast, 
while necessary and moral are distinctively 
antithetic. 

God's Moral Attributes are qualities of 
character. They belong to God as the 



The Godhead. 181 

result of the choices he makes. I do not 
mean that God makes any attribute the 
object of his choice. These attributes be- 
long to him because of the things he volun- 
tarily chooses to do — the courses of conduct 
he chooses to pursue — in his relations with 
other intelligences. If he were the only 
intelligence in the universe, his Necessary 
Attributes would still belong to him; but a 
moral attribute would be impossible, except 
as it might exist as a state of mind, a vol- 
untary disposition to do certain things, if 
there were an occasion. 

I am anxious all should get a clear and 
correct notion on these points. It is for 
lack of clear ideas of the nature and condi- 
tion and results of moral action, moral 
agency, that so many strange theological 
notions are held, that people believe only 
because they have been told that they are 
taught in the Bible. Such persons often 
say, ' ' I believe that doctrine, not because 
I apprehend it as a truth, but because it is 
taught in our pulpits, and people say it is 
taught in the Bible." Now I want to say 
distinctly, I hold no such doctrines, more 



1 82 The Godhead. 

properly called "dogmas." I believe I have 
a reason for every doctrine I hold, and I 
will never ask any man to believe a doc- 
trine, nor perform an act as a duty, for which 
I cannot give him a reason, and a reason 
whose reasonableness he can apprehend and 
comprehend. 

I. What are the Necessary Attributes 
of God? 

1. Personality. This attribute belongs 
necessarily to every self-determining intelli- 
gence. God is such an intelligence, hence 
a person. Self-consciousness is the deter- 
mining fact of personality. Any being who 
is conscious of selfhood; any being who real- 
izes I am, I think, I feel, I will, is a person. 
This self-consciousness belongs to God, not 
from choice but of necessity, hence person- 
ality is one of his Necessary Attributes. 

2. Eternity. This means having neither 
beginning nor end. This is a necessary 
affirmation of the reason. That he had no 
beginning is certain, because there was no 
intelligent existence before him to give him 
being; hence he must of necessity be the 
Uncaused Cause. 



The Godhead. 183 

3. Omnipotence. This is power to ac- 
complish whatever is an object of power. 
It does not apply to any thing to which 
power cannot be applied. It is power un- 
limited by any other power. The fact that 
God is Omnipotent is ground for asserting 
that he can do any thing that requires power 
for its performance; but it is ground for 
nothing else. If he can do other things, it 
is not because he is Omnipotent. His abil- 
ity to think, to feel, to will, is not 
based upon his Omnipotence. Moreover, 
there are many things he cannot do at all. 
For instance, God cannot find a shorter dis- 
tance between two points than a straight 
line. That is a fact he did not create, and 
that he cannot change. Neither can he co- 
erce the will of any being to whom he has 
given the power of choice. The will of 
every moral agent in the universe is sover- 
eign, self-determining; just as independent 
of the will of God, in its action, as the will 
of God is independent of my will or yours. 
The Omnipotence of God was of no avail 
in devising or executing the plan of salva- 
tion. God cannot save sinners from their 



184 The Godhead. 

sins by his own Omnipotence, If he were 
to prevent them, by physical force, from ex- 
ecuting their wicked purposes, he could not 
coerce their intention, and the sin lies in the 
intention, not in the execution of the inten- 
tion. Such hindrance would not prevent 
the sin. " He that hateth his brother is a 
murderer," though circumstances may re- 
strain him from taking his brother's life. 

4. Omniscience. The meaning of this 
attribute is that all things knowable are 
known to God. No one doubts that God 
knows every thing that has transpired in the 
past, and every thing that is now transpir- 
ing. Does he know the future? Assuredly; 
all that ever will transpire, through the ages 
of eternity. Nor is this all. Not only are 
the past, the present and the future known 
to him. Every thing that would have been, 
had a different choice been made by each in- 
telligence in the universe, at each alternative 
point, and every thing that might be but will 
not be, are just as clearly known to him as 
the past and the present. Omniscience 
comprehends not only facts that have been 
or will be, but all possibilities as well, inclu- 



The Godhead. 185 

ding the whole line of events that would 
follow each of these possible choices, down 
into the eternal ages. You exclaim "In- 
comprehensible !" Yes, such knowledge is 
incomprehensible; but that it is and must be 
so is not incomprehensible. 

It was said of a celebrated chess-player 
that he knew not only what would be the 
effect upon the whole future of the game, 
of each move made upon the chess-board; 
but the possible effect of each move that 
could be made, from the commencement to 
the end of the game. If a human mind can 
comprehend not only the actualities but the 
possibilities of a game of chess, why should 
the statement that the infinite mind com- 
prehends all the possibilities of the universe 
stagger any one ? 

Do not say, "I cannot understand it." 
Turn on the light and look. See and under- 
stand all you can; and from what you do 
see, judge of that which may be beyond 
your sight. From a few observations, the 
astromomer calculates the entire orbit of a 
distant planet, of which he had no previous 
knowledge; so from his works, and from his 



1 86 The Godhead. 

word, and from his dealings with our own 
hearts, we may learn a great deal about 
God. 

One practical thought, of great signifi- 
cance and great encouragement, comes to 
my mind right here. All thoughts, as well 
as deeds, are known to the infinite mind; 
but the knowledge of finite minds, even of 
the angels, both good and bad, is confined 
to manifestations of thoughts. They can- 
not know our thoughts as God knows them. 
Even the devil does not know what we think, 
unless our thought is revealed by some form 
of expression. 

5. Omnipresence is another Necessary 
Attribute of God. This does not mean that 
God is infinitely large. ' ' His center is ev- 
erywhere, and his circumference nowhere," 
though the prevailing idea of his Omnipres- 
ence cannot be true. " His presence fills 
immensity " is more nearly correct, provided 
you make a clear discrimination between his 
presence and the magnitude of his person. 

In order to a proper understanding of 
this attribute, it is necessary to remove a 
very common, and almost universal, miscon- 



The Godhead. 187 

ception of the divine mode of existence. I 
dislike exceedingly the apparent arrogance 
and self-conceit with which I am liable to 
be charged, for presuming to present as 
truth theories and ideas that differ from those 
held and taught by far more learned and 
profound thinkers than myself, and made 
sacred by the faith of ages, until men have 
almost ceased to inquire into the foundation 
on which they rest. I have no ambition to 
be an iconoclast, nor do I lack regard for 
the opinions of others, nor reverence for the 
great and scholarly men of the past; but he 
is not worthy to be a teacher who has not 
* ' the courage of his own convictions, "which 
is but another expression for daring to differ 
from others. Luther said, ' ' Popes have 
erred and so have councils;" and probably 
the great men of the past, as well as those 
of the present, have erred; and smaller men 
who come after them may detect and correct 
their errors. 

The error to which I refer is the doctrine 
that God is an unsubstantial though intelli- 
gent force, energy, an abstraction, an idea, 
a conception, a myth, a name, an incom- 



1 88 The Godhead. 

prehensible imagination, ''without body or 
parts," and in no sense a substance, an en- 
tity, having form and occupying a particular 
locality in space. As soon as one sugges-'S 
the idea of a substantial essence, men are 
shocked, and cry out "Materialism! Mate- 
rialism!" This is only the cry of "mad 
dog." Substantialism is no more material- 
ism than spiritism is materialism. Angels 
are spirits, and saints are spirits; does any- 
one doubt that they are substantial exist- 
ences ? or suppose that their bodily forms 
are composed of matter ? So is God a 
Spirit. 

An intelligent being, whatever its mode 
of existence, must think, feel and will. 
Now, a force, an energy, a myth, a concep- 
tion, an imagination, cannot think. A 
thought cannot think; a feeling cannot feel; 
a volition cannot will. Where there is 
thought, there is something that thinks; and 
so of feeling and of willing. Passages of 
Scripture are numerous in which different or- 
gans of the body are attributed to God. 
These are usually explained as figurative; 
language used only by way of accommoda- 



The Godhead. 

tion, that it may be more intelligible to us. 
Yet writers often speak of the " Divine sub- 
stance," the "Divine essence." 

Now, be assured, where there is sub- 
stance, however ethereal, however refined, 
however divine, it has form and occupies 
space, and a limited amount of space at 
that. That being which has no substance, 
no form, no location, is only an imaginary 
being — only a myth, a thought, an imagina- 
tion, an abstraction. Such a being never 
planned this universe. An unsubstantial 
intelligent person is impossible, unthinkable. 
If you ask me, Where is God located ? 
where is the throne on which he sits as a 
Sovereign ? where he hold his court, sur- 
rounded by the angels that always behold 
his face ? my answer is, I do not know. 
There must be a center of the universe 
somewhere; it may be there. 

This question must be considered from 
our standpoint, not from his. He is not 
Omnipresent in the sense that he is every- 
where bodily; but because everything is in 
his presence. Nothing can be hidden from 
him. A teacher sits upon the rostrum in a 



190 The Godhead. 

school-room, and every thing in the room is 
in his presence. Now, if the teacher could 
read the thoughts, intentions and motives of 
each pupil, and knew, without effort, every- 
thing that transpired in the room, we would 
have a miniature representation of the Om- 
nipresence of God in the universe. The 
teacher does not fill the school-room, but 
everything in the school-room is in his pres- 
ence. So God does not fill infinite space, 
but everything in space is in his presence. 
Does not this presentation of the subject co- 
incide with the presentations found in the 
word of God? Read Isa. vi. i. " I saw 
the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and 
lifted up." Read also Dan. vii. 9, 10, and 
Rev. iv. 2-6. Ps. ciii. 19, "Jehovah hath 
established his throne in the heavens;" and 
cxxxix. 7-12, "Whither shall I go from 
thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy 
presence ? if I ascend into heaven, thou art 
there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold 
thou art there. If I take the wings of the 
morning, and dwell in the uppermost parts 
of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead 
me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I 



The Godhead. 191 

say, Surely the darkness shall overwhelm 
me, and the light about me shall be night, 
even the darkness hideth not from thee, but 
the night shineth as the day. The darkness 
and the light are both alike to thee." Luke 
i. 19. "The angel answering said unto 
him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the pres- 
ence of God." Passages that speak of God's 
presence, his face, eyes, ears, hands, feet, 
and other parts of his body, are numerous. 
Undoubtedly this language is employed to 
give us a clear and truthful conception of 
God; and what can be more helpful to that 
end than the statement of facts as they are? 
I do not believe that the Scriptures are full 
of fables and false statements, in order to 
convey truths of the greatest importance to 
human minds. I know of no better way to 
teach truth to others than to tell them the 
truth as it is. When Scripture language is 
figurative or poetical, there will always be 
some attendant fact or circumstance that 
will suggest that fact. 

II. The Moral Attributes of God. 

My object, under this head, is not to 
enumerate all the Moral Attributes of the 



192 The Godhead. 

Deity, but "to mention such of them as are 
necessary to show their nature, and to dem- 
onstrate the fact that God must be a moral 
agent. Moral attributes are qualities of 
moral character, and can belong only to a 
moral agent. The fact that God possesses 
these attributes, a fact that is undisputed, 
is positive evidence that he is a moral 
agent. 

Whatever God is morally, he is from 
choice, and that choice must be made in the 
presence of an alternative. Right here, at 
the very threshhold of our inquiry, lies an 
immense stumblingblock. Men have so 
long considered it unpardonable irreverence 
to reason respecting God, as they would 
reason in other things, that they are 
shocked at the very suggestion that God's 
attributes are not all inherent qualities, or 
facts, of his constitution, belonging to him 
of necessity. They suppose that God is 
holy and good, just and merciful, for the 
same reason that he is eternal and omnis- 
cient; because it is a necessity of his being, 
and he could not, under any possibility, be 
otherwise. This error must be abandoned, 



The Godhead. 193 

or no adequate idea of God can be enter- 
tained. The fact that "we praise God for 
his goodness," implies that we regard it as a 
virtue in him to be good, and must be 
accepted as evidence that he is good from 
choice and not from necessity; and this is 
moral agency. 

But we are asked, ''Does not moral 
agency necessitate the possibility of sinning? 
Do you think that God can sin? Do not 
the Scriptures say that God cannot lie ?" 
In answer to these questions, let me ask 
some questions. Suppose the beautiful 
story of Washington, the hatchet and the 
cherry tree, to be true; and that the little 
boy Washington did say, "Father you know 
I cannot tell a- lie;" do you understand that 
the lad had no power to tell a lie, that it 
was an impossibility of his constitution? or 
that he did not choose to tell a lie? that it 
was a moral, not a physical, impossibility? 
Who would say the boy could not have told 
a lie, had he chosen to do so? 

Again, there sits before me a mother. 
In her arms rests a sleeping infant. I place 
a glittering dagger in her hand, and bid her 

13 



194 The Godhead. 

thrust it through the heart of that infant. 
In an instant, she flings the dagger to the 
floor, and with an expression of horror upon 
her countenance she exclaims, "I cannot 
kill my babe." Would anyone suppose she 
meant that she had not the physical strength 
to do it? Thus the fact that God is good, 
that he cannot lie, rests in his choice, in 
the moral integrity and purpose of his will, 
not in any inability. Does anyone suppose 
that God has endowed mortals with abili- 
ties that he does not possess himself? Were 
that the case man would not have been cre- 
ated in the image of God. 

Since, then, every virtue, every trait of 
moral character, is a moral attribute, and 
since God possesses them all, his moral 
attributes are very numerous. Mr. Finney 
enumerates thirty-seven of them; and in- 
cludes them all in the one all-embracing at- 
tribute Love. This conception of all moral 
attributes is undoubtedly correct. -We shall 
follow it, mentioning, however, only a few 
of the leading attributes, and showing that 
they all center in love, and never conflict or 
clash one with another. 



The Godhead. 195 

I. God is Love. As an attribute of 
God, what is Love? 

(1) It is not parental love. Parental 
love is. an instinct. It is found in brutes 
as well as in human beings. It is a virtue 
only in so far as it is acquiesced in volun- 
tarily, in the presence of the alternative of 
rejecting it. While it is not a positive vir- 
tue in the human mother to love her off- 
spring, it would be a positive sin in her not 
to love it; for that would require a positive 
purpose. No mother could hate her off- 
spring instinctively. It may be said that 
all the instincts of a parent belong to our 
heavenly Father; but it is not because of 
these that we affirm that "God is Love." 
He claims no virtue for this. 

(2) It is not friendship, however strong. 
The strongest friendship between individuals 
may be perfectly consistent with pure sel- 
fishness towards all others, and may arise 
from a selfish motive between themselves. 

(3.) It is not the love of one sex for the 
other. That is also instinctive; and its ex- 
ercise may be right or wrong according to 
circumstances. 



196 The Godhead. 

(4) It is the voluntary exercise of good- 
willing, bene volens, benevolence. God wills 
the good, the highest good, of every sen- 
tient creature. This love has no respect 
whatever to the moral character of the per- 
son loved. He wishes the sinner well as 
well as the saint. " He maketh his sun to 
rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth 
rain on the just and the unjust." "God so 
loved the world that he gave his only be- 
gotten Son." This is also the love he re- 
quires, when he says, "Love your enemies 
and pray for them that persecute you;" also, 
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
Many, misinterpreting this command, sup- 
posing it to mean that they must feel the 
same affectionate attachment to their dis- 
obliging, morose, hateful, hostile, neighbor, 
as they feel for the members of their own 
families and their most intimate and accom- 
modating friends, rebel against the precept, 
and declare that obedience to it is impossi- 
ble; while many others, intent on doing all 
the Savior requires of them, strive to realize 
such affection for their bitterest enemies; 
and reproach themselves for lack of grace 



The Godhead. 197 

and faith, because their efforts are futile. 
Let me assure all such that no such love is 
required or commanded. The language of 
the precept will bear no such intrepretation. 
It does not read thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thou lovest thy wife, thy husband, 
thy child, thy friend. Your love for your- 
self is the standard, and what is that love? 
Is it affection? Never! 

Did you ever feel prompted to throw 
your loving arms around the reflection of 
your own person in a mirror? or to imprint 
a kiss upon the reflection of your own fair 
cheek? Never! What then? The dearest 
thing to every man, except his life, is his 
rights. Benevolence requires of every one 
that he regard the rights and the welfare of 
his neighbor, even his enemy, as carefully, 
as truly, as sacredly, as he regards his own 
rights and welfare. They who rejoice when 
their enemy stumbleth, and are glad when 
calamities overtake him, disobey this pre- 
cept; but those who wish even their ene- 
mies well, even though they do not love 
them, and delight in their companionship, 
as they do their own families, obey it. In 



198 The Godhead. 

the light of. this illustration and explanation 
we may discover and comprehend what 
Love is as an attribute of God. These two 
kinds of love have been known among the- 
ologians as Love of Benevolence, and Love 
of Complacency. 

2. At the head of all attributes of Love 
stands Justice. "The Lord is our Judge; 
the Lord is our Lawgiver; the Lord is our 
King." The first necessity in him who sus- 
tains these relations to intelligent beings is 
the disposition to treat each one according 
to his intrinsic merit or desert. To this 
attribute we give the name Justice. As re- 
lated to crime, it considers the well-being 
not of the criminal alone, but of the entire 
community, including the lawgiver himself; 
and deals with the offender as the good of 
all concerned demands. 

This attribute is often misunderstood. 
Many suppose its intent, its object, is to in- 
flict deserved punishment for misconduct; 
that is, visit upon the offender an amount of 
suffering that Justice will take as an equiv- 
alent or satisfaction for the offence. This 
is a great mistake. There is no such func- 



7'he Godhead. 199 

tion in the government of God. He has 
no attribute whose intent is punitive. I 
grant that the word punish and its deriva- 
tives are found many times in the Scriptures. 
So are the words wrath, anger, vengeance, 
as applied to God; but none of these words 
are to be understood as referring to the mo- 
tive by which God is actuated in visiting its 
just deserts upon sin. They represent the 
view men take of the act of punishment, 
while they (the men) are ignorant or unob- 
servant of the motive that prompts the act. 
The same is true, theoretically at least, in 
human governments. Men are fined, or 
sent to prison, not for the purpose of 
wreaking vengeance upon them, but with 
the hope that they may be reformed there- 
by; and when light punishment fails in ef- 
fecting this result, and the offender becomes 
incorrigible, and is imprisoned for life, or 
put to death, the intent of the government 
is not vengeance but the protection of com- 
munity, and as a warning to others of the 
consequences of transgression. This is, at 
least, the divine intent in authorizing hu- 
man governments, whether it is so under- 



200 The Godhead. 

stood by men or not. Possibly, there may 
be much yet to learn on this point. 

Let the fact be deeply impressed upon 
every mind, that Love is the underlying 
principle of all the offices and functions of 
Justice; not only toward the well-deserving, 
in suitably rewarding meritorious conduct; 
but toward the ill-deserving, in meting out 
suitable punishments. The object, in the 
latter case, being corrective, first of the 
offender himself, and secondly of the dispo- 
sition of others to commit the same crime; 
and also the safety and welfare of commu- 
nity. " When the scorner is punished, the 
simple is made wise." 

3. Mercy. This is also an attribute of 
Love. As representative of an attitude of 
the divine will, Mercy is a disposition to 
pardon the guilty. In the exercise of this 
disposition, the welfare of community must 
be carefully guarded. (This point is treated 
in Lecture vi. 7). Hence mercy can be 
shown only when Justice, as guardian of the 
rights and welfare of the whole, is satisfied, 
and consents that the offender may be par- 
doned; and Justice can be executed only 



The Godhead. 201 

when Mercy, all her merciful offices spurned, 
retires from her efforts, and abandons the 
sinner to his fate. This spurning of Mercy 
is the sin against the Holy Spirit, that hath 
never forgiveness, neither in this world nor 
in the world to come. 

Though the moral attributes of God are 
numerous, none could better illustrate and 
enforce the doctrine of his moral agency 
than those that have already been mentioned. 
If God is Love, benevolence itself, regard- 
ing alike the well-being of enemies and 
friends, of those who are in rebellion against, 
and of those who are loyal to, his govern- 
ment, it must surely be evident to all that it 
is because he chooses that attitude towards 
them, not because it is an unalterable neces- 
sity of his constitution. The same is also 
true in regard to all his Moral Attributes. 

4. One thought more is worthy of our 
notice under this head. In the Scriptures 
men are often called upon to thank and 
praise the Lord. For what do they praise 
him ? Invariably for things that he does vol- 
untarily. Note the following as examples: 
Ps. cvii. 1, <l O give thanks unto Jehovah; 



202 The Godhead. 

for he is good; for his loving kindness en- 
dureth forever." Four times, also, in the 
same psalm, " O that men would praise Je- 
hovah for his loving kindness, and for his 
wonderful works to the children of men!" 
Ps. cxxxvi. commences "O give thanks un- 
to Jehovah, for he is good; for his loving 
kindness endureth forever;" and every one 
of the twenty-six verses of this psalm 
mentions some voluntary act of his for which 
thanks should be given him. We may rev- 
erence and adore God for what he is inher- 
ently, constitutionally — for his Omnipotence, 
Omniscience, etc. — but we can praise him 
only for what he does, and for what he is by 
virtue of his voluntary state of mind. Hence 
God is a Moral Agent. 

THE EXECUTIVE DEITY THE WORD THE SON 

Associated with the One Infinite and 
Eternal God is another distinct and individ- 
ual personage. This second person in the 
Godhead is the first thing in the universe 
that ever had existence separate from the 
Infinite and Eternal ONE. He is desig- 
nated in the Scriptures by a very large num- 



The Godhead. 203 

ber of distinctive and significant appellations, 
and is the Executive Diety, through whom 
all the works of God have been and will be 
performed. 

He is the Word that formulated and 
gave expression to the creative fiat; the Je- 
hovah Elohim who talked with Adam in the 
garden of Eden; the Jehovah who talked 
with Noah, Abraham, Moses, with the High 
Priest from between the cherubim, and with 
the prophets at a later day. He was the 
"Angel of the Covenant," the "Captain of 
the Lord's Host." It was his finger that 
wrote the commandments upon the tables of 
stone, and his voice that caused the earth to 
quake and the people to tremble. In the 
fullness of time he made his appearance on 
earth as the babe of Bethlehem — the Son 
of God and the son of man. All this and 
much more will be clearly shown as we 
proceed. 

1. Gen. i. 1, "In the beginning, God." 
John i. 1, "In the beginning was the 
Word." These phases refer, without doubt, 
to the initial moment of divine activity, when 
the stagnation of eternity was broken by an 



204 The Godhead. 

event. ELOHIM existed then; the Infinite 
and Eternal ONE, and the WORD: the 
Father and the Son. Hence it appears that 
"The Word" was the first name by which 
the Son of God was known. Now a word 
is an idea expressed. It is the thing, the 
sound, the vocable, that expresses, gives 
form to, in a certain sense materializes and 
renders perceptible to one intelligence the 
idea, the thought, of another. This Word 
was the first expression, manifestation, ever 
given to a thought, an idea, a plan, a pur- 
pose, of the Infinite and Eternal God. He 
was in the beginning, at the beginning, and 
the beginning itself. 

2. ' ' The Word was with God " (John i. 
i). This is a remarkable statement. It 
can not be made intelligibly of a simple 
sound of the voice, a vocable. You cannot 
say a spoken word is with him who uttered 
it. It must mean more than that. What 
does it mean? It means that "The Word'* 
is the distinctive and distinguishing appella- 
tion of a separate individual, a second per- 
son in the Godhead. He is an invisible 
idea, thought, purpose, represented in a sub- 



The Godhead. 205 

stantial form, endowed with life, intelli- 
gence, personality. Having dwelt during 
the preceding eternity as a concept in the 
mind of the Father, he is now a distinct, 
self-acting, self-conscious, responsible indi- 
viduality; his appellation — the Word — indi- 
cating both his origin and his character. 

On this important point let us take his 
own testimony, when he was on earth as the 
Son of God and the son of man. John viiL 
42, " I came forth and am come from God; 
neither have I come of myself, but he sent 
me." John xvi. 28, "I came out from the 
Father, and am come into the world; again 
I leave the world, and go unto the Father." 
John vi. 38, "I am come down from heaven 
not to do my own will, but the will of him 
who sent me." Two wills can exist only 
where there are two personalities. 

If a person who leaves another and re- 
turns to him again, is not a separate and 
distinct individual from the one whom he 
leaves and to whom he returns; and if the 
one who is sent is not a separate individ- 
ual from him who sends, tell me, ye who 
can, how one individual maybe distinguished 



206 The Godhead. 

from another, so that we shall know there 
are two instead of one. 

How far back we must turn the dial in 
order to find the beginning of his indepen- 
dent personality, we may judge from such 
passages as the following: Col. i. 17, 15. 
"He is before all things," ''The image of 
the invisible God, the first-born of all crea- 
tion." Rev. hi. 14, "The beginning of the 
creation of God;" not the first thing created, 
but the agent through which the whole crea- 
tion, from the beginning, was effected. 
John i. 3, "All things were made through 
him; and without him was not anything 
made." John xvii, 5, "O Father glorify 
thou me with thine own self with the glory 
which I had with thee before the world was. " 

3. "The word was God" (John i, 1). 
This declaration respecting the word has 
been greatly misunderstood. Many have 
supposed it was the intention of John, and 
of the inspiring Spirit, to affirm that he was 
personally and individually identical with the 
Father in whom and from whom he had his 
origin, and with whom he was. With one 
breath such exegetes predicate of each a 



The Godhead. 207 

personal, individual identity; with the next 
they deny their dualty, and declare the two 
to be one personal identity. When asked 
to explain the contradiction, their answer is, 
"It is a mystery, beyond human compre- 
hension. No one attempts to explain it. 
It must, however, be true; for it is the plain 
declaration of the inspired word. God has 
said it, and I must believe it. I believe 
what the Scriptures say, whether it accords 
with or contradicts my reason. When God 
speaks, no one should presume to reason.'* 
Before considering the meaning of the 
text, I must be permitted a brief digression, 
in order to say a few words respecting this 
attitude of mind. As I apprehend it, this 
is a false conception of faith. He who says 
he believes a statement that contradicts his 
own positive knowledge of facts, let the 
statement come from whatever source it 
may, stultifies his reason, falsifies his con- 
victions, and degrades his manhood. Such 
a thing can not be done. It is not in the 
power of a rational being. We may be- 
lieve, and must believe, multitudes of facts 
whose causes and sources are beyond our 



208 The Godhead. 

rational comprehension; but to believe that 
which contradicts reason is impossible. It 
is not difficult to believe that two, three, or 
any number of separate entities, existences, 
whether material or spiritual, may be of like 
essence, substance, or material; nor that 
two, three, or any number of individual 
personalities, each an independent, self- 
conscious ego, may exist and act in perfect 
harmony of purpose, thought and feeling, in 
perfect coincidence of judgment and unity 
of action; but the affirmation that two sep- 
arate units, whether of matter, of essence, 
of substance, of spirit, of self-conscious 
personality, or of whatever else may be sup- 
posable, however homogeneous in substance 
or harmonious in thought and volition, may 
be one unit of the same kind, can not be 
believed by any intelligent, reasoning being 
in the universe. Nor does this fact in any 
degree compromise the declarations of the 
word of God, or weaken the most profound 
faith in that word. The most contradictory 
statements that can be found in the Bible, 
respecting the Supreme Father and the sub- 
missive and obedient Son, are perfectly har- 



The Godhead. 209 

monious, when correctly interpreted. ' ' I 
and my Father are one," "My Father is 
greater than I," "No man hath seen God at 
anytime;" "He that hath seen me hath 
seen the Father," are perfectly harmonious 
and consistent one with another, and each 
with all the rest, when truthfully interpre- 
ted. There is not even the semblance of 
a contradiction or discrepancy. 

In order to a clear, positive, reliable un- 
derstanding of the proposition, ' ' The Word 
was God," reference must be had to the 
Greek, the language in which this gospel 
was written. Even from an accurate Eng- 
lish translation, its true meaning is not so 
much as suggested; while from the Greek it 
is clearly demonstrable. The Greek reads, 
Theos (God) en (was) ho (the) logos (word). 
Why not translate this, God was the Word, 
placing each word in the order in which it is 
found in the original? Because such a trans- 
lation would violate a very important rule of 
the Greek language. That rule is, "In a 
simple proposition, the subject usually takes 
the article and the predicate does not." No 

one will dispute that this is a plain example 
11 



210 The Godhead. 

under that rule. Logos, then, having the 
article, is the subject of the proposition; and 
Theos, not having the article, is the pre- 
dicate. Hence we translate, The Word was 
God. 

Does this mean that the personal Word 
was the personal God? To this inquiry we 
invite the most careful and candid attention, 
particularly of Greek scholars, hoping at the 
same time, to make our exposition intelligi- 
ble to all. If the Greek read, ho theos en ho 
logos, the God was the Word, either God or 
Word might be the subject, and the other 
the predicate. It would then mean, The 
personal Word was the personal God; or 
the personal God was the personal Word: 
the two terms of the proposition being iden- 
tical, either may be properly considered as 
subject, and the other as predicate. Mani- 
festly, then, if John had intended to make 
that statement, he would have used that 
form. Conversely, since he did not use 
that form, he did not intend to make that 
statement. What then did John mean to 
state? He meant to state that the Word — 
the living personal Word — was of the same 



The Godhead. 211 

essence, substance, nature as the Supreme 
and Infinite God, his Father. The Word 
was Divine. He inherited (speaking after 
the manner of men) the intellectual endow- 
ments of the Father, as well as homogen- 
eity of essence and substance with him; on 
account of which he possessed constitution- 
ally the natural endowments that qualified 
him for and enabled him to perform the 
great works assigned to him to do. 

His faithful performance of these works, 
as well as the moral attributes of his char- 
acter, were all dependent upon his choices, 
the same as in the case of any other moral 
agent, his Father for instance; but note 
well, none of the Necessary Attributes (see 
page 182), that exist in infinite degree as 
inseparable characteristics of the Supreme 
One, belong essentially, inherently, to him. 
He is neither Eternal, Omniscient nor Om- 
nipotent. In his own nature and consti- 
tution he is not Infinite. Do not be 
shocked at this. If what has already been 
shown, page 117, respecting the separ- 
ate individuality of the Word, supported 
by quotations from the Saviors own lips, 



2i2 The Godhead. 

may be relied upon, this proposition is self- 
evident. Nothing that is Infinite can be 
dual or plural. The oneness of Infinity is 
as self-evident as the axioms of mathemat- 
ics. Infinity necessitates unity. One in- 
finite space fills immensity; no room can be 
found for another. One infinite duration 
comprehends eternity; no other eternity can 
either precede or follow it. One infinite in- 
telligence embraces all mental capacities 
and powers; there can be neither occasion 
for nor possibility of another. 

4. His qualifications. 

In the performance of the works com- 
mitted to him as the Executive Deity, what- 
ever of wisdom and power was necessary, 
beyond what was attainable in his own de- 
velopement, was furnished without stint or 
limit by the Father, who was ever present 
with him, and all of whose infinite resources 
were at his command. Col. i. 19, "It was 
the good pleasure of the Father that in him 
should all the fullness dwell." Col. ii.9, 
"In him dwelleth all the fullness of the 
Godhead." Thus nothing could be lacking 
in him that it was in the power of the 



The Godhead. 213 

Father to supply. Jesus' own words in this 
matter fully explain the situation. John 
iii. 34, "He whom God hath sent speaketh 
the words of God; for he giveth not the 
Spirit by measure." John, v. 20, "The 
Father loveth the Son and showeth him all 
things that himself doeth." Mat xi.27, 
"All things have been delivered unto me of 
my Father." Mat. xxviii. 18, "All author- 
ity hath been given unto me in heaven and 
on earth." John viii.28, 29, 42, "I do 
nothing of myself; but as the Father taught 
me, I speak these things. And he that sent 
me is with me; he hath not left me alone, 
for I do always the things that are pleasing 
to him. I came forth and am come from 
God; neither have I come of myself, but 
he sent me." John xii.49, "I spake not 
from myself; but the Father who sent me, 
he hath given me a commandment, what I 
should say and what I should speak. The 
things, therefore, which I speak, even as the 
Father hath said unto me, so I speak." 
John xiv. 10, "The words that I say unto 
you I speak not from myself; but the Father 
abiding in me doeth his works." Many 



214 The Godhead. 

other passages might be quoted to the same 
end; but it must be manifest to every can- 
did reader that it is utterly impossible that 
the Infinite One should use such language 
respecting himself. Such language is pos- 
sible only for one who is conscious both of 
the high exaltation of the position he oc- 
cupies in the universe, of the fullness of his 
qualifications to meet his responsibilities, 
and of his complete dependence upon a su- 
perior, to whom he delights to attribute all 
the authority under which he acts, and all 
the wisdom and power that are manifest in 
and through him. The subterfuge to which 
many resort, that Jesus spoke sometimes as 
a man and at others as God, only involves 
those who resort to it in still more inextri- 
cable difficulties and inconsistencies. We 
believe the view here presented is fully con- 
sistent with the Scriptures, with reason, and 
with common sense; while the views that 
have been commonly held in the past are arbi- 
trary, and inconsistent with all of these. In 
the Son of God, as here presented, we have a 
personage, who fully answers to the descrip- 
tion that is found in Heb. i. 3, "Who being 



The Godhead. 215 

the effulgence {apaugasma, reflected splen- 
dor) of his glory, and the very image (charak- 
ter, stamp, impress, exact likeness) of his sub- 
stance {Jiupostaceos, substance, essence, be- 
ing)." Hence he is unquestionably and indis- 
putably Divine; and at this initial period of his 
existence only Divine — the Executive Deity. 

5. Should divine worship be rendered 
to the Son of God? This is a question of 
very great importance, since the object one 
worships determines whether he is a servant 
of the true God or a heathen. 

What we call worship has its origin in 
the constitutional endowment of our nature, 
that prompts admiration and deferential de- 
portment towards another, whom we sup- 
pose to be superior in some respect, to our- 
selves. Its elements are admiration, praise, 
petition and thanksgiving. Admiration is 
suggested by the superiority recognized. 
When exercised towards the Supreme Be- 
ing, and prompted by love and devotion in 
the highest degree, we call it adoration. 
This is the strongest word in our language 
with which to express loving, filial, supreme 
honor, loyalty, devotion. 



216 The Godhead. 

Praise -is properly rendered only for the 
virtues of moral character. We "praise 
God for his loving-kindness, and for his 
wonderful works to the children of men." 
These are acts that indicate praiseworthy 
qualities of character. They are the pro- 
ducts of volition, not inherent and necessary 
attributes. We adore God for his moral 
attributes; but also and more especially for 
his necessary attributes — Eternity, Infinity, 
Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotence. 
For these latter, however we cannot praise 
him; because they belong to him from 
necessity and not from choice. 

We offer petition to God for the things 
that we need and have not. In doing this, 
we recognize him as having in his posses- 
sion and at his disposal all the resources of 
the universe; also his promises, "Ask and 
ye shall receive; " "No good thing will he 
withhold from them that walk uprightly." 

Thanksgiving, as an act of divine wor- 
ship, is an expression of gratitude to God 
for what he is and for what he does. It 
must be borne in mind, however, that 
thanksgiving, like praise, belongs to God 



The Godhead. 217 

only for what he is from choice, not from 
necessity. We may thank God because he 
is Love; but we cannot thank him because 
he is Infinite and Eternal. This analysis 
should impress us with the fact that wor- 
ship must be intelligent as well as emo- 
tional, in order to be acceptable to God and 
profitable to the worshiper. 

Doubtless it will occur to the reader 
that there is much included in these acts, 
considered severally, that pertains to our 
fellow men as well as to God; that the dif- 
ference between adoration and admiration 
is only a difference in degree, not in kind; 
and that praise, petition and thanksgiving 
are as appropriate when given to a deserving 
fellow mortal, as when rendered to God. 
All these facts have much to do with the 
question of worshiping our Lord Jesus 
Christ, to which we will now come di- 
rectly. 

We have already shown that all the 
fullness of the Godhead dwells in him; 
that all the infinite attributes of the Su- 
preme One are practically, though not in 
an absolute sense, his; that he is the Execu- 



218 The Godhead. 

tive Deity, in creation, redemption and 
judgment; that he is the Jehovah of the old 
dispensation, and the Immanuel (God with 
us) of the new; and that he is essentially 
and substantially divine in his constitution 
and nature. Add to all this the wonderful, 
the astonishing fact that "He loved us, and 
gave himself for us," that "while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us," and do we 
not find in him everything required to chal- 
lenge and warrant not admiration only but 
adoration? Is he not also worthy of the 
highest praise and thanksgiving we are cap- 
able of rendering? Is it not of him we are to 
obtain pardon of sin and eternal life? 
I John v. n, "God gave unto us eternal life, 
and this life is in his Son;" Mat. xi. 28, 
"Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Are 
not the resources of the universe, ' 'all power 
in heaven and in earth," in his hand, and at 
his disposal, and should we not go to him 
with our petitions, whatever we may want 
or desire? Thus all the elements of wor- 
ship, divine worship, are due to him, if not 
in the very highest degree, at least in a de- 



The Godhead. 219 

gree so high, so broad, so great, that to dis- 
criminate between him and any other, even 
the Father Almighty, would be difficult if 
not practically impossible. Who, while 
gazing into the heavens, can discover that 
one of the heavenly bodies is nearer his eye 
than another? and yet their distances differ 
by millions of miles. The moon seems to 
the naked eye to lie in the same field with 
the most distant star. Thus it is with the 
Son of God, as related to us and to the In- 
finite Father. Though the Father is infinite 
and the Son finite, to our view and for all 
practical purposes both are in the same 
heavenly plane. So far as we, our wants 
and necessities, are concerned, the Son is 
equal to the Father. His authority, his 
powers, his official capabilities, are the 
same; and the same worship is due him. 
He is "God Almighty," or, as Adam Clarke 
says, commenting on Ex. vi. 3, "God All- 
sufficient;" and is so called in many places 
in the Scriptures. 

Conceding, though scarcely from convic- 
tion of its truth, that the Magi (Mat. ii, 1) 
had no idea of divine honor to the infant 



220 The Godhead. 

Jesus, when they "fell down and worshipped 
him," such a fact can not be conceded in 
such cases as the following: Matt, viii, 2, 
"There came to him a leper and worshipped 
him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst 
make me clean." The act of worship, in 
this case, consisted in addressing Jesus as 
"Lord," ascribing to him supernatural 
power, and reverentially beseeching him to 
perform a miraculous act of healing. This 
is quite above the homage rendered to kings, 
and is clearly a recognition, on the part 
of the suppliant, of the divine nature and 
power of the Savior. A still more positive 
instance, one whose import and intent can 
not be reasonably questioned, is recorded in 
Matt, xiv, 33, "They that were in the boat 
worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou 
art the Son of God." Jesus had walked 
from the shore upon the water, in a fearful 
storm, to rescue his imperiled disciples. 
Peter, at his command, had stepped boldly 
out of the boat upon the water to meet him; 
but, losing faith, had been saved from 
drowning by the outstretched hand of the 
Master. They entered the boat safely, and 



The Godhead. 221 

the wind ceased. At this juncture, the dis- 
ciples " worshipped him." Can this worship 
mean anything less than recognizing in him 
divine power ? ascribing to him divine 
honor ? and rendering to him praise and 
thanksgiving as unto their Sovereign King 
and Lord ? Again, on the morning of the 
resurrection, when the two Marys (Mat. 
xxviii, 8, 9) "ran to bring the disciples 
word, and "Jesus met them, saying, All 
hail ! And they came and took hold of his 
feet, and worshipped him." If this does not 
mean divine worship, would it not be dim- 
cult to find an instance of divine worship, 
even of the Father, recorded in the word of 
God ? These are only samples of numerous 
passages that might be quoted from the New 
Testament, showing that divine honor was 
paid to the Christ, when he was on earth, 
in form and fashion as a man, "the son of 
man" as well as "the son of God." 

Turning now to the Old Testament, and 
keeping in mind that the Word was the Ex- 
ecutive Deity, that he was one of the Elo- 
him, one of the "our" and "us" engaged 
in the creation, that his most common name 



222 The Godhead. 

was Jehovah, we find that all the worship 
there recorded, while it included the Su- 
preme and Infinite ONE, as our worship of 
him also must, included him also. Nor is 
the Father in any sense or in any degree 
compromised by the worship of the Son. 
Jesus himself has placed that matter beyond 
doubt and beyond cavil, when he says, John 
v, 23, "He hath given all judgment unto 
the Son; that all may honor the Son, even 
as they honor the Father, He that honor- 
eth not the Son, honoreth not the Father 
that sent him." It must also be conceded 
that obedience to God can in no way or 
degree compromise or detract from his 
honor or dignity, as Supreme Sovereign; 
and we read, Heb. i, 6, "When he bringeth 
in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, 
'And let all the angels of God worship 
him."' In the 8th verse we also read, " Of 
the Son he saith, 'Thy throne, O God, is 
for ever and ever.'" If the Father calls the 
Son "God," and commands the angels to 
worship him, can we doubt the propriety of 
calling him by the same name, and render- 
ing him the same worship ? Let us exclaim, 



The Godhead. 223 

then, with Thomas, John xx, 28, "My 
Lord and my God." 

There is, also, one event recorded in the 
Old Testament, that is, to my mind, signifi- 
cantly allegorical, as illustrating the posi- 
tion of the Son, in the divine economy of 
the universe, and government of the king- 
dom of God. Turn to Genesis xli, 40-44, 
"And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Thou 
shalt be over my house, and according to 
thy word shall all my people be ruled: only 
in the throne will I be greater than thou. 
* * * And Pharaoh took off the ring 
from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's 
hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine 
linen, and pat a gold chain about his neck; 
and he made him to ride in the second 
chariot which he had; and they cried be- 
fore him, Bow the knee; and he made him 
ruler over all the land of Egypt." The in- 
structive points in this transaction are: 

First, Joseph's authority in the kingdom 
was absolute, with the one exception of 
Pharaoh himself. It included even "my 
house, "the members of his family, as well as 
"all my people." Joseph was accountable 



224 The Godhead. 

directly to Pharaoh, and to him alone. This 
authority was so absolute and unlimited that 
Pharaoh did not reserve even the right of 
appeal to himself from Joseph's decisions. 
When Judah plead before Joseph for the re- 
lease of Benjamin, he recognized this fact 
by saying, Gen. xliv, 18, "For thou art 
even as Pharaoh;" the import of which 
plainly is, If I win not my case before you, 
it is hopeless; there is no appeal to 
Pharaoh. 

Secondly, Joseph held no part of that 
authority in his own right. It was all con- 
ferred upon him by Pharaoh. 

Thirdly, In rendering royal honor to 
Joseph, in accordance with the command of 
Pharaoh, the people honored Pharaoh even 
as they honored Joseph. 

This transaction illustrates precisely, ac- 
cording to my understanding, the relations 
of the Son both to the Father and to all the 
other intelligences in the whole universe, the 
universal kingdom of God. With this con- 
ception of the situation, and of the nature 
of worship, no one can doubt for an instant 
the right of the Son to receive, and the duty 



The Godhead. 225 

of men as well as angels to render to him 
divine honor and worship. Many other 
passages might be quoted, and many other 
phases of the argument presented, but we 
regard the above as convincing, unanswera- 
ble and all sufficient. "If they hear not 
Moses and the prophets, neither will they 
be persuaded, if one rise from the dead." 

THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

I. The personality of the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus says, "John iv, 24, "God is a 
Spirit." We read, respecting angels, Heb. 
i, 14, "Are they not all ministering spirits?" 
and in Heb. xii, 23, "Spirits of just men 
made perfect." Demons are also called 
"evil spirits, " "unclean spirits, "etc. These 
passages are conclusive on the question, 
whether the word spirit may designate per- 
sonality. We find it applied to every class 
of personalities of which we have knowl- 
edge. We find, also, in innumerable pas- 
sages of Scripture, that God is Holy. 
Since, then, God is a Spirit, and is also 
Holy, is it not eminently fitting that he 
should be called, by way of pre-eminence, 
"The Holy Spirit?" 

15 



226 The Godhead. 

Again. No one, to whom the Scriptures 
are the inspired word of God, doubts that 
God, the first person in the Godhead, was 
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. On 
this ground he is called "God the Father." 
Nor can there be any possible evasion of the 
fact that the Holy Spirit is the Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. Read Luke i, 35, 
"The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, 
and the power of the Most High shall over- 
shadow thee, wherefore also the holy thing 
which is begotten shall be called the Son of 
God;" also Mat. i, 20, "Joseph, thou son 
of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, 
thy wife; for that which is conceived in her 
is of the Holy Spirit. " The inevitable logi- 
cal conclusion is that The Holy Spirit is 
God the Father. Two other conclusions 
follow this with equal positiveness and cer- 
tainty: The Holy Spirit is a person, for 
paternity implies personality; and he is the 
First Person in the Godhead, for God the 
Father is the First Person. Moreover, he 
is the One and the only Self-existent and 
Eternal God. 

The above are propositions from which, 



The Godhead, 227 

to a believer in the Word of God, there is 
no escape, and of which successful evasion 
is impossible. The logic of the argument 
is faultless; the truth of the premises, indis- 
putable; and the only thing that can hinder 
the assent of any reader will be the preju- 
dice that is begotten of a previous theory, 
or of no theory at all. 

The conclusions here reached also illus- 
trate how strict adherence to Bible state- 
ments and Bible logic is able to reconcile 
doctrinal differences that have long been 
considered unreconcilable, though plain 
Scriptural statements seemed to support 
each of the conflicting theories. 

The point of contention between those 
who advocate and those who deny the per- 
sonality of the Holy Spirit has been this: 
Its advocates, failing to observe what I have 
shown above, have contended that he was a 
third person; while its opposers, through 
the same failure, have seen no other way to 
maintain their denial of tri-personality in 
the Godhead than to deny the personality 
of the Holy Spirit entirely. The latter 
refuse to give due weight to such passages 



228 The Godhead. 

as plainly teach personality, because they 
will not be driven to a conclusion, for which 
they find neither necessity in the nature of 
providential methods, nor substantial evi- 
dence in the inspired word. The former 
fail to see that the Holy Spirit, when desig- 
nating a person, may always be referred to 
the Father, and that to contend that the 
reference is to a third person necessitates 
the absurdity of supposing there are two 
separate persons in the Godhead, each of 
whom is designated by the appellation Holy 
Spirit. 

Surely no candid inquirer after truth can 
reasonably maintain that there are two per- 
sons in the Godhead, to each of whom this 
appellation is applied. That it can with 
perfect propriety be applied to the Father, 
and that the Holy Spirit is the Father of the 
Son of Mary, are statements that cannot 
be disputed without a plain contradiction of 
the divine record. There is no fact more 
plainly and positively taught in the Bible 
than that the Holy Spirit is the Father of 
the son of Mary, and hence, must be God 
the Father — the first person in the Godhead. 



The Godhead. 229 

In the light of the foregoing, each party 
to this controversy can accept the Scripture 
teaching, that the Holy Spirit is the First 
Person in the Godhead, thereby admitting 
his personality; and from that standpoint 
both will be prepared to understand alike 
all the teaching of the Scriptures respecting 
him. The word trinity, inexplicable and 
mysterious, as well as unscriptural, as ap- 
plied to the Godhead, will drop out of the 
vocabulary of theological dogmas; vain at-, 
tempts to explain the inexplicable mystery 
will Cease forever; one of the most bitter 
and uncharitable of all the controversies 
that have agitated and irritated the fol- 
lowers of the Prince of Peace, and hin- 
dered the progress and triumph of truth and 
righteousness in the earth, will come to 
a perpetual end; and one of the worst of all 
the barbed-wire fences that ever separated 
the sheep of the Good Shepherd will be 
broken down and destroyed forever. 

II. The phrase Holy Spirit is often 
used in the Scriptures to express divine influ- 
ence, energy, power. Personality, however, 
is always implied as the source of such influ- 



2 .3° 



The Godhead. 



ence, energy or power. Luke xxiv. 49, ' 'Tarry 
ye in the city until ye be clothed with power 
from on high." Acts i. 8, "Ye shall receive 
power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon 
you." Acts i. 5, "John indeed baptised with 
water, but ye shall be baptized in the Holy 
Spirit not many days hence." The apostles' 
understanding of these instructions and 
promises is fairly inferable from the course 
they pursued immediately after the ascen- 
sion, and the extraordinary events that 
transpired on and subsequent to the day of 
Pentecost. Since, however, this was not 
the beginning of the efficient agency of the 
Holy Spirit, let us study its phenomena in 
the earlier history of our race. The first 
reference on record to the influence of the 
Holy Spirit upon men is found in Gen. vi.3, 
"And Jehovah said, My Spirit shall not 
strive with man forever." Here, in the very 
infancy of the human race, is an unmis- 
takable recognition of the fact that God ex- 
erted a mysterious influence, not coercive 
but persuasive, upon the hearts and lives of 
men. 

Have we any means by which we can 



The Godhead. 231 

form an idea, a rational conception of what 
that influence is and how it is exerted? Let 
us see. Man was created in the image of 
his Creator. Since this influence evinces 
an intimate relationship between man and 
God, may there not be something in man 
that bears a close resemblance to this mys- 
terious power that God manifestly exerts 
upon his creature man? something that 
puts the two in touch, each with the other, 
thus effecting responsive action between 
them. Men have a peculiar and mysterious 
influence over one another. This influ- 
ence is subtle, indefinable, sometimes at- 
tractive, sometimes repulsive, often very 
powerful, and belongs to every member of 
the human family, but not in the same de- 
gree to each. It is not limited to spoken 
words, material contact, or even visible 
presence. The name by which we designate 
this subtle power is magnetism; probably 
because of its many points of resemblance 
to what is called magnetism in matter. 

Now, no one would dare maintain that 
God has given to man a power or faculty 
that he does not possess himself. Admit- 



232 



The Godhead. 



ting then that God possesses and exerts 
over men a magnetic power or influence, is 
it manifested in any other way than that 
known to us as the Holy Spirit? No intima- 
tion of any other magnetic influence over 
men, from a divine source, is found in the 
Scriptures; and no man has ever been aware 
of any such influence, other than this, in his 
personal experiences. What other conclu- 
sion then can we come to than that this 
subtle, indescribable influence, exerted by 
God upon the souls and lives of men, is the 
Divine magnetism? This magnetic contact 
is the channel of an intercommunion of 
thought and feeling that we call ' ' r he fel- 
lowship of the Spirit, " and which is also of 
the same nature as our "fellowship one with 
another." 

III. A partial enumeration of the ef- 
fects wrought upon men, in different ages, 
by the Holy Spirit, is now in order. 

i. From the text already quoted, Gen. 
vi. 3 " My spirit shall not strive with man 
forever," we learn that one of the uses of 
this divine magnetism, called the Holy 
Spirit, is to influence men to do that which 



The Godhead. 233 

is right and pleasing in the sight of God . 
This work of the Spirit is recognized in Ps. 
li. 11, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." 
Gal. v. 16, "Walk by the Spirit, and ye 
shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Rom. 
viii. 1, "Walk not after the flesh, but after 
the Spirit; " -Eph. iv.30, "Grieve not the 
Holy Spirit of God;" Mark iii.29, "Who- 
soever shall blaspheme against the Holy 
Spirit hath never forgiveness; " and in a 
multitude of other passages. The truth is, 
men are dependent upon the Holy Spirit, 
directly or indirectly, for every good impulse 
they ever experience, for every influence 
that leads them upward as individuals and 
that elevates the race to better conditions. 
"No man can come to me, except the 
Father that sent me draw him " (John vi. 
44). Valuable and important as learning 
and society may be, for the growth and de- 
velopement of desirable mental and social 
qualities of character, nothing but moral 
influences, influences that come to us from 
the Holy Spirit, through our own spiritual 
nature, truly elevate the soul, and establish 
and maintain our true and heaven-designed 



234 The Godhead. 

relations with God, securing in us the state, 
and for us the end, for which our being has 
been given us. 

2. For the gift of prophecy, the inspir- 
ation that reveals to the finite mind events 
that lie in the long distant future, we always 
have been and ever must be dependent upon 
divine revelation. He alone, who knows the 
end from the beginning, has predicted, or can 
with any certainty predict the future. The 
same is also true in regard to events that 
have transpired or will transpire in heaven, 
and that transpired on earth before the cre- 
ation of man. This also is the work of the 
Holy Spirit. *■ ' For no prophecy ever came 
by the will of man; but men spake from 
God, being moved by the Holy Spirit " (2 
Pet. i.21; 1 Pet. i. 10, 1 1). 

3. For the inspiration that gives the 
humble follower of Christ bravery in the 
face of danger, boldness in the declaration 
of unwelcome truth, steadfastness in the 
line of a difficult duty, we may depend upon 
the Holy Spirit, through whose agency the 
promise is fulfilled, * ' My grace is sufficient 
for you. " This is the grace that has been 



The Godhead. 235 

vouchsafed in all ages. Noah experienced 
it in his day. It sustained Elijah when he 
stood alone among the four hundred proph- 
ets of Baal, challenged them to the fiery 
test, and hewed his way through the ter- 
rible scene of carnage and blood that fol- 
lowed. Nathan realized its sustaining power, 
when he said to David, his King, "Thou 
art the man." Daniel trusted in it when he 
stood before the kings of Babylon, and re- 
buked their impiety; also when he refused 
to recognize or pray to any god but the God 
of Israel. Peter was emboldened by it 
when, a prisoner before the Sanhedrin, 
"filled with the Holy Spirit," he made a 
plea that, for bold defiance and crushing 
effect upon his malicious judges, surpassed 
all similar pleas ever made at the bar. Acts 
iv.8-12, "By the name of Jesus Christ of 
Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God 
raised from the dead, even in him doth this 
man stand here before you whole. He is 
the stone which was set at nought of you 
builders, which was made the head of the 
corner. And in none other is there salva- 
tion, and neither is there any other name 



236 The Godhead. 

under heaven that is given among men 
wherein we must be saved." The secret of 
the boldness, energy, defiance, and crushing 
power of this plea is revealed in the words, 
" filled with the Holy Spirit." The boldness 
and power of Paul and Others, on various 
occasions was inspired by the same agency. 

4. Another form in which ' ' the inspir- 
ation of the Almighty giveth them under- 
standing " was experienced by the apostles 
on the day of Pentecost, (Acts ii. 2-4). Its 
striking manifestations were, " Suddenly 
there came from heaven a sound as of the 
rushing of a mighty wind; . . . there ap- 
peared unto them tongues parting asunder, 
like as of fire; . . . and they began to 
speak with other tongues." The cause as- 
signed for all this is, ' 'They were all filled with 
the Holy Spirit; . . . the Spirit gave them 
utterance." 

The gift of healing, and of working other 
miracles, that seems not to have been an 
abiding and conscious power, but came upon 
the apostles as occasion required; such as 
the healing of the lame man at the gate of 
the temple (Acts iii. 1-6), and the raising of 



The Godhead. 237 

Dorcas to life by Peter (Acts ix. 39-41); the 
healing of the cripple at Lystra (Acts xiv. 
8-10), and the raising to life of Eutichus at 
Troas (Acts xx. 10), by Paul; and many 
other works requiring miraculous agency are 
of the same nature. They are found in the 
catalogue of "spiritual gifts," given by Paul, 
1 Cor. xii. 

Nor did these divine magnetic forces, 
sometimes miraculous and sometimes only 
giving extraordinary activity and power to 
natural endowments, leave the world 
with the apostles. Martin Luther, John 
Knox, Jonathan Edwards, Asahel Nettleton, 
Charles G. Finney, Dwight L. Moody, and 
hundreds of others, from the days of the 
apostles to the present time, have been in- 
structed, inspired, emboldened and ener- 
gized, in ways diverse and innumerable, by 
the same supernatural and divine agency. 
If this is not the case, these men were all 
mistaken themselves, for without exception 
they believed that the Divine hand was 
leading them and the Divine Spirit enlight- 
ening and inspiring them, thus giving their 
labors supernatural efficiency. 



238 The Godhead. 

5. There is another sense in which the 
word spirit is used that may be helpful to us 
in getting a true and clear conception of the 
nature and working of the Holy Spirit. The 
remark is often made, " I like his spirit," or 
■" I do not like his spirit." There are tones 
of voice, movements of the head and body, 
gestures and attitudes, that seem to us to in- 
dicate constitutional dispositions, permanent 
or temporary states of mind, that we employ 
the word spirit to designate, judging the in- 
ner by the outer man. This spirit is very 
potent in its influence over others. It is 
very apt to produce its like in others, with 
whom it comes in contact. It is reported 
of a New England minister, of nearly a hun- 
dred years ago, that he used to say, u I do 
not want to be a bigot; I hate a bigot; but 
when I am talking with a bigot, I become a 
bigot myself, before I am aware of it. " 

An amiable, gentle, loving disposition is 
influential to generate its like in others by 
the same law. This influence is magnetic, 
and illustrates how the dispositions of the 
divine mind are reproduced in the minds of 
those who have been made ' ' partakers of 






The Godhead. 139 

the divine nature." It is thus that com- 
munion with God, by a natural law, com- 
forts the disconsolate, strengthens the weak, 
imparts supernatural vigor of mind to per- 
ceive truth, and force of utterance to express 
it; gives fortitude to endure pain, persecu- 
tion, false accusation, malicious opposition; 
and grace in any form that the exigencies of 
an occasion may demand, whether in life or 
in death. Here we find also, in one form, 
the reasonableness and efficacy of prayer. 

6. The figures of speech employed to 
express the working of the Holy Spirit upon 
the hearts and lives of men are often very sug- 
gestive of its nature, and demonstrative that 
influence instead of personality is meant. 

Passages of this kind are numerous. 
Only a few will be quoted. Prov. i. 23, 
' ' Behold I will pour out my Spirit unto 
you;" Isa. xliv. 3, "I will pour my Spirit 
upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine 
offspring;" Isa. xxxii. 15, " Until the Spirit 
be poured upon us from on high, and the 
wilderness become a fruitful field;" Joel ii. 
28, 29, quoted by Peter Acts ii. 17, 18, " It 
shall come to pass afterward, that I will 



240 The Godhead. 

pour out' my spirit upon all flesh, and your 
sons and your daughters shall prophecy, 
your old men shall dream dreams, your 
young men shall see visions; and also upon 
the servants and upon the handmaids, in 
those days, will I pour out my spirit." 

That the word spirit (and it is God's 
spirit every time), in these quotations, rep- 
resents an influence instead of a personal- 
ity, is so evident from the connection and 
scope of the passages that the translators, 
both of the old and new versions, have used 
a small instead of a capital S in spelling the 
word. The truth is, while this figure of 
speech, to pour out, is very appropriate 
and expressive in many other connections, 
especially to represent the magnetic power 
one earnest person may exert upon another, 
the idea of pouring one person upon another 
is inconceivable. An influence, a feeling, the 
magnetic power of one person over another, 
is itself suggestive of a fluid that may be 
poured, but a conception of personality for- 
bids it. 

7. The idea of being filled with the 
Holy Spirit, as employed many times, par- 



The Godhead. 241 

ticularly in the Acts of the Apostles, is of the 
same nature. Take the following as sam- 
ples: — Acts ii. 2, "They were all filled with 
the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with 
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them ut- 
terance;" iv. 31, "They were all filled with 
the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of 
God with boldness;" vi. 5, "They chose 
Stephen, a man full of faith and of the 
Holy Spirit;" xiii. 9, "Saul, who is also 
called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fast- 
ened his eyes on him," etc.; Luke iv. 1, 
"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned 
from the Jordan." No one can fail to see 
that Holy Spirit, in these passages, can 
have no other signification than a divine en- 
thusiasm, giving them quickness of percep- 
tion and discernment, great courage and 
boldness and fitness for their work, and a 
magnetic influence over others that brooked 
no resistance. 

8. Whence does this divine spirit, influ- 
ence, power, proceed? where is the fountain 
head out of which it all flows ? That its ori- 
gin is a personal intelligence is evident from 
its nature. It is exerted upon intelligent be- 



242 The Godhead. 

ings, and its effects are intelligent in the 
highest degree. The question we want to 
come at is, Is it exerted by the Father 
alone, or by both the Father and the Son? 
This question has been in dispute between 
the Greek and the Roman churches ever 
since the Council of Nice, A. D. 325; the 
Greek church contending that it proceeds 
from the Father only; the Roman maintain- 
ing that it proceeds from the Father and the 
Son. The Scriptures that bear upon the 
question are the following: — John xiv. 16, 
1 ' I will pray the Father and he shall give 
you another Comforter;" verse 26, "The 
Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the 
Father will send in my name, he shall teach 
you all things, and bring to your remem- 
brance all that I said unto you;" John xv. 
26, "When the Comforter is come, whom 
I will send unto you from the Father, even 
the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from 
the Father, he shall bear witness of me;'' 
John xvi. 7, "It is expedient for you that I 
go away; for il I go not away, the Com- 
forter will not come unto you; but if I go, I 
will send him unto you." These are the 



# The Godhead. 243 

only passages that bear directly upon the 
question. What would these passages 
teach to an unprejudiced mind ? to one who 
had no previously adopted theory to main- 
tain ? to one who did not know that any 
dispute had ever existed respecting it, and 
in whose mind the question had just arisen 
for the first time ? It seems to me the an- 
swer must be plain to every candid mind. 
Let us see. He reads, ' ' I will pray the 
Father, and he shall give you." Could he 
get any other idea from this than that the 
thing spoken of was found in the Father, 
was at his disposal, and would be given on 
request of the Son ? He reads again, 
i 'Whom the father will send in my name." 
This would strengthen his first impression. 
Again he reads, "Whom I will send unto 
you from the Father." The Son promises 
to send the Comforter; but still recognizes 
the Father as the source whence he will 
come. He reads further, "Even the 
Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from 
the Father." The question is settled. 
There is no room for doubt. The source, 
whence this hallowed influence: — this Holy 



244 The Godhead. 

Spirit — emanates is the Father; and why 
not, since he is the source of all things? 
He reads once more, ' ' If I go, I will send 
him unto you." His opinion is not changed, 
for he remembers the other passage, where 
he read, "I will send him unto you from 
the Father." Omitting reference, in a 
single instance, to the source, is not con- 
strued as claiming to be the source himself, 
since he had just stated that it belonged 
only to the Father. 

Now, on the hypothesis that we have 
assumed, that these phrases, "the Com- 
forter," "the Spirit of truth," "the Holy 
Spirit," in the passages under consideration, 
refer to the influence that we have called the 
divine magnetism, the doctrine of the pas- 
sages plainly is that, while the Father is the 
original source, the fountain head, of this 
wonderful "power from on high," it is also, 
by the will of the Father, exercised by, 
and at the disposal of, the Son, "in whom 
dwelleth all the fullness of the God- 
head," (Col. ii. 8); "for it pleased the 
Father that in him should all fullness dwell." 
(Col. i. 19). 



The Godhead. 245 

This is also in perfect accord with the 
uniform teaching of the Son himself, respec- 
ting the powers and authority possessed by 
him. "All power in heaven and on earth 
is given unto me of the Father" is his oft 
repeated declaration, in regard to both his 
works and words. This power to confer the 
Spirit on whom he chose corresponds pre- 
cisely with, and is fully explained* by, his 
statement, John v. 26, " As the Father hath 
life in himself, even so gave he to the Son 
also to have life in himself." Thus, having 
this power, by the will of the Father, the 
Spirit proceeded from him when ' ' he 
breathed upon them (the disciples), and 
said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit," (John 
xx. 22). 

Furthermore, inasmuch as every other 
intelligence in the world, whether human or 
angelic, is endowed by the Creator with a 
similar magnetic power, it follows that each 
one is capable of exerting an influence, good 
or bad according to the Spirit that is in him. 
This accounts for the incident that occurred 
at Ephesus, Acts xix. , when Paul found 
there certain disciples who, when ' * baptized 



246 The Godhead. 

into John's baptism," " did not so much as 
hear whether the Holy Spirit was;" but hav- 
ing been baptized • ' into the name of the 
Lord Jesus," " when Paul had laid his hands 
upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them.' 
A similar event occurred also while Peter 
was preaching to the household of Cornelius 
(Acts x. 44), " The Holy Spirit fell on them 
who heard the word." Being filled with the 
Holy Spirit himself, Peter imparted the 
same to his hearers. 

8. There is yet one circumstance of 
very great significance and importance, as to 
its bearing upon the question of the third- 
personality of the Holy Spirit. While the 
Father and the Son often speak, as self-con- 
scious persons, using the personal pronouns 
of the first person — I, we, us — under cir- 
cumstances that exclude the possibility of a 
mistake as to their personality; and while 
they are often addressed in the second per- 
son, prayer and praise and prostrate wor- 
ship offered to them, every mention of the 
Holy Spirit is in the third person. Gen. vi. 
3 does not read, The Holy Spirit said, I 
will not strive with man forever. In Ps. li. 



The Godhead. 247 

1 1, David does not pray, Holy Spirit, do not 
leave me. Nor is there any thing similar to 
these forms of expression any where in the 
word of God. Jehovah said, ' ' My Spirit 
shall not strive with man forever." David 
said, " Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." 

An apparent exception to this affirmation 
is found in Acts xiii. 2, "The Holy Spirit 
said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for 
the work whereunto I have called them." 
The meaning and intent of these words 
manifestly are not to state that the Holy 
Spirit was there in person, giving directions 
as to the setting apart of these men, but 
that there was a suggestion to their minds, 
which they recognized as from above, mov- 
ing them to that act. The pronouns I and 
me refer to the person from whom the sug- 
gestion came — manifestly from Jesus nim- 
self. The same interpretation is to be given 
to Acts xvi. 6, ' 4 having been forbidden of 
the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia," 
and to a large number of similar passages in 
the New Testament. 

If the Holy Spirit were a separate, self- 
conscious, self-determining third personal- 



248 The Godhead. 

ity, to whom was assigned a specific work, 
to be effected through his individual, per- 
sonal agency, a work to which he assented, 
and in which he engaged of his own free will 
and accord, and for which he was individ- 
ually responsible and accountable, as is 
clearly the case with the Son, and with 
every other moral agent, is it not reasonable 
to suppose that he would often have spoken 
and acted in his own individua: capacity ? 
ascribing his authority and power to the 
Father, as the Son so uniformly did ? A 
single intimation from him that he came 
forth from the Father, and that the Father 
sent him, both giving him authority and im- 
parting to him ability to do the work as- 
signed him, would have placed this whole 
question of personality in the clear sunlight 
of certainty. Is not the absence of all such 
claims at least suggestive of non-person- 
ality ? 

9. Another significant inquiry arises in 
my mind, Why has the Holy Spirit, if a 
third personality, having so much to do with 
men as is ascribed to him, never made a 
visible appearance to any human eye ? An- 



The Godhead. 249 

gels, who are ''ministering spirits," have 
been frequently seen by human eyes; saints, 
"the spirits of just men made perfect," 
were seen on the mount of transfiguration; 
Jehovah, the impersonated Word, talked 
with Moses "face to face;" but the Holy 
Spirit has never been seen by any one, 
never spoke an audible word to anybody; 
and there is no record that he ever appeared 
to any one even in a dream, or vision. 

Moreover, when John had his wonderful 
vision of the heavenly world and its inhab- 
itants, from the Isle of Patmos, he saw 
every other form of personality of whom we 
have ever heard, not excepting "him that 
sat upon the throne," from whose hand 
"the Lion of the tribe of Judah," "the 
Lamb that was slain" (Rev. v.), took the 
book; but makes no mention of the Holy 
Spirit. John saw distinctly the Father and 
the Son, but makes no mention of the Holy 
Spirit. 

Still further, John says, Rev. v. 13, 
"And every created thing which is in heaven, 
and on the earth, and under the earth, and 
on the sea, and all things that are in them, 



250 



The Godhead. 



heard I saying, Unto him that sitteth on the 
throne, and unto the Lamb, be the bless- 
ing, and the honor, and the glory, and the 
dominion, for ever and ever;" but there is 
not a word ascribing glory, or praise, or honor, 
or power, to the Holy Spirit, neither in this 
passage, nor in any other passage in the 
whole book of Revelation, nor anywhere 
else in the Bible. If there was a personal 
Holy Spirit, in heaven or on earth, no 
"revelation" of the fact was ever made to 
John. He never knew any thing about it. 
In his first epistle, i. 3, he says, ''Our fel- 
lowship is with the Father and with his 
Son Jesus Christ;" but not a word about 
fellowship with the Holy Spirit. This fact 
appears the more strange and unaccount- 
able, because of the important works attrib- 
uted to that agency, throughout the New 
Testament. It is simply impossible that 
one of the persons of the Godhead, who had 
performed so important a part in the work 
of saving the souls of the millions that John 
saw, should be unrecognized, unnoticed, un- 
mentioned, even unseen, in that stupendous 
vision of the winding up of all earthly things. 






The Godhead. 251 

Verily, I must believe, my judgment and 
reason can not decide otherwise, that the 
doctrine of a third person in the Godhead, 
designated as the Holy Spirit, is a delusion. 
To say it is a mystery does not help the 
matter at all. The mystery is too great. 
It is nothing less than impossible. Those 
who believe and advocate it are undoubt- 
edly sincere, but they are surely mistaken. 
Reader, do not anathematize me, as many 
have often done, for disbelieving the dogma. 
Extend to me the same charity that I ex- 
tend to you. You can not be more fully, 
candidly, honestly convinced in your judg- 
ment than I am in mine. In fact, I believe 
that, if you will lay aside the prejudices in 
which you have been educated, and exam- 
ine the question thoroughly, de novo, you 
will come to the same conclusion as I have. 
Dare to think for yourself. Dare to inves- 
tigate. Dare to believe. Dare to express 
your belief. "When he, the Spirit of 
truth, is come, he shall guide you into all 
truth." Willingness to know truth is the 
open door into which truth delights to 
enter. 



252 The Godhead. 

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

Of passages that seem to conflict with 
these views, two only need explanation. 
These are Mat. xxviii. 19, "Baptizing them 
into the name of the Father and of the Son 
and of the Holy Spirit;" and 2 Cor. xiii. 
14, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and the love of God, and the communion 
of the Holy Spirit, be with you." As for 
this latter passage, its language is sufficient 
explanation. Personality is without doubt 
implied in the exercise of grace and love. 
Only a person can show favor, and only a 
person can love. "Communion of the 
Holy Spirit " is quite a different matter. 
The word "communion" can convey no 
other idea than an exchange of kindly feel- 
ings, pleasing emotions, that "flow of soul" 
that is experienced by persons who are on 
intimate and loving terms with one another, 
a harmonious confluence of sweet sympa- 
thies, precisely of the nature expressed in 
1 John i. 3, "Our fellowship is with the 
Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." 
The meaning of the benediction is, The 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you; 



The Godhead. 253 

the love of God be with you; and the sweet 
consciousness of the indwelling of the divine 
presence be with you. 

The formula of baptism may not be 
quite so easily disposed of; and were it not 
for the plain teaching of both Scripture and 
reason, as presented in this discussion, might 
easily be accepted as including three person- 
alities. A different construction is, how- 
ever, neither difficult nor unnatural, and is 
demanded by facts and passages already 
considered. Its object manifestly is, at 
that solemn moment, when the candidate 
is in the act of putting on Christ "through 
baptism into death," to remind him of the 
three agencies by which those who are dead 
1 ' through trespasses and sins" may be ' 'made 
alive" and permanently saved from their 
thraldom and power. These are the same 
as are referred to in the benediction above; 
''the love of God," who devised the plan; 
"the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," who 
"for our sakes became poor," who "gave 
himself a ransom for many, " who ' ' suffered 
for sin once, the righteous for the unright- 
eous, that he might bring us to God;" and 



254 The Godhead. 

that divinely magnetic, enlightening, inspir- 
ing, sustaining, strengthening influence that 
comes from " fellowship with the Father 
and with his Son Jesus Christ." In the act 
of baptism, he proclaims to the world his 
trust in these agencies for his own salvation 
and the salvation of the world. These are 
the divine, supernatural agencies on which 
every man must depend, who would escape 
from the guilt and bondage of sin, become 
reconciled to God, enabled to accomplish 
the mission on which he has been sent into 
this world, and gain the everlasting favor of 
both the Father and the Son in the world 
to come. 



LECTURE X, 



ETERNAL PUNISHMENT 

That moral agents may persist in sin, re- 
sisting every saving influence that can be 
brought to bear upon them, until they attain 
a fixedness of purpose, a willful and unal- 
terable attitude of rebellion against God, 
against truth, against light, against every 
means of saving grace, has been shown re- 
peatedly in the preceding lectures. My ob- 
ject in this lecture is to show more fully the 
working of this great and solemn fact, to 
show also that the Scriptures teach, and rea- 
son sustains, with great positiveness, what 
the nature of moral agency renders pos- 
sible; namely, that in certain cases human 
souls do acquire such an attitude, and 
thereby incur certainly and inevitably their 
own eternal ruin. 

As a basis of our argument, I assume as 
axiomatic the following propositions: 

I. On all questions of eschatology, on 
which the Son of God himself has spoken, 



256 Eternal Punishment. 

his utterances, rightly interpreted, are final 
authority. 

2. On questions, respecting which the 
Son of God is silen t the affirmations of rea- 
son, when undeniably logical, may be taken 
as reliable, providing always that they do 
not conflict with plain, unequivocal state- 
ments of the inspired word. Such conflict 
is evidence of faulty reasoning, not of unre- 
liable Scripture. 

Before entering upon our argument 
proper, it is very important that we rid our- 
selves of a very great and blinding error, of 
long standing and almost universal preval- 
ence. Shocking and terrible as the very 
thought is, most Christians will admit, at 
this very hour, that they believe that it is 
the decree of heaven that, for the commis- 
sion of a single sin, the transgression of a 
single law, the omission of a single duty, 
eternal banishment from God and heaven 
may justly follow. Some there are, good 
men and true, who recognize the terribleness 
of the thought, and wonder how it can be 
that divine justice has affixed to a single act 
of neglect of duty the same penalty as to 



Eternal Punishment. 257 

life-long devotion to most reckless, diabol- 
ical crime. Still others, not the worst men 
in the world by any means, impelled by a 
sense of outraged justice, and presuming 
that the Bible teaches such a doctrine, re- 
ject the whole system of Christianity, Bible 
included, and declare themselves outspoken 
and uncompromising infidels. 

This is one of the dark places into which 
acquaintance with the nature and principles 
of moral agency will throw a flood of light. 
In order to throw open the window, and let 
in light upon this subject, we advance a pro- 
position that will undoubtedly startle some 
even of our thoughtful readers. It is this: 
The commission of a single sin, or of any 
number of sins, from the neglect of a 
thoughtless child to obey a trivial require- 
ment of a parent, to the commission of the 
most heinous crime, is not the damning act 
that seals the everlasting doom of the lost 
soul. If it were, the doom would be sealed 
from the moment the act was committed. 
All talk of mercy would be idle. The gos- 
pel would be meaningless; or, rather, there 
would be no gospel. Impenetrable dark- 



258 Eternal Punishment. 

ness, hopeless despair, would fall upon the 
offender like a pall of blackest midnight, 
without a ray from the faintest star, the 
moment he became conscious of his offense. 
Such, however, is not the case. The call 
to repentance, the offer of pardon and res- 
toration to the favor of God, mean there is 
yet hope. You are a sinner indeed, your 
guilt is great, you are "condemned already," 
but not to eternal despair, unless you com- 
mit another act, in addition to the sins 
already committed, an act of sin whose 
enormity is immeasurable, inexpressible, 
irretrievable. That act is simply refusal to 
repent. By that act, with your own hand, 
you close the door of hope that a merciful 
Savior has thrown wide open before you. 
By that act, of your own free will, you re- 
fuse to yield to the only influence, the least 
and the greatest; refuse to accept the only 
means, the first and the last and all be- 
tween, by which the bondage of sin can be 
broken. After that fatal decision, no means 
can be found, in heaven to invite, in earth 
to persuade, or in hell to warn and terrify, 
that you have not resisted and overcome. 



Eternal Punishitient. 259 

How are you then to be brought to re- 
pentance, that you may be saved? By that 
dreadful decision, you deliberately form a 
fixed purpose, not that you can not but that 
you will never change — a final choice. By 
that act you banish the Holy Spirit from 
your heart forever, turn the warnings of 
conscience into the scorpion stings of re- 
morse, and enthrone Satan in your soul as 
your king and sovereign, swearing loyalty to 
him for all eternity, and renouncing all alle- 
giance to God your rightful Sovereign, and 
Jesus your only Savior. You have often 
asked, What is the sin against the Holy 
Spirit ? It is this very refusal to yield to 
the persuasions of Infinite Love, the appeals 
of the sufferings and death of the Divine 
Son of God, the tears, entreaties and 
prayers of Christian friends — the best 
friends you have on earth. "Verily I say 
unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven 
unto the sons of men, and their blasphemies 
wherewith soever they shall blaspheme; but 
whosoever shall blaspheme against the 
Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is 
guilty of an eternal sin" (Mark iii. 28, 29). 



260 Eternal Punishment. 

Note well "an eternal sin." This is the 
correct translation of the very words of Jesus. 
Eternal punishment means eternal sin. 
It is not the penalty of a single act of 
inadvertent, nor of deliberately intentional, 
disobedience. It is the deliberate and in- 
tentional re-enactment of that sin; the de- 
liberate perpetuation of that sinful, disloyal, 
rebellious state of heart and will, that 
resists, repels, with unyielding, eternally 
persistent purpose, every good and saving 
influence; and gives itself up to every de- 
basing desire, every diabolical pursuit, into 
which the great enemy of all righteousness 
may lead. It was of such that Jesus said, 
John viii. 44, "Ye are of your father the 
devil, and the lusts of your father it is your 
will to do." Thus the impenitent, unre- 
pentant sinner seals his own doom, and 
seals it for eternity; in spite of all the means 
that Infinite Love can prompt, Infinite Wis- 
dom devise, Infinite Mercy present. Who 
shall deny the eternity of his punishment, 
when he persists eternally in sin? Who 
shall charge God with cruelty, or unkind- 
ness, or even indifference, under such a 



Eternal Punishment. 261 

state of things? Hear his own declaration 
respecting it; Ezek. xxxiii. 11, "As I live, 
saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in 
the death of the wicked; but that the 
wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, 
turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will 
ye die?" Such is the light in which the 
facts of moral agency place the question of 
eternal punishment. Thus the sinner seals 
his own doom. The door of his heart is 
closed against Mercy; because he has him- 
self bolted it, and keeps it bolted by his 
persistent determination not to let Mercy in 
to cleanse him from sin, and save him from 
eternal punishment. 

Thus far, in this lecture, we have only 
shown that the philosophy of moral agency 
reveals the possibility of souls sinning away 
the day of grace, and sealing their doom to 
eternal despair. This does not prove that 
any have ever done this, are doing it now, 
or ever will do it. Potentialities do not al- 
ways indicate actualities or certainties. 
Holy angels, being moral agents, are com- 
petent to sin, though their fixed character 
for holiness, their final choice of loyalty to 



262 Eternal Punishment. 

God, assures us that they never will. De- 
mons also, being still moral agents, are com- 
petent to repent, but their fixed character 
for rebellion against God, their final choice 
of eternal alienation from him, render it cer- 
tain that they never will. So the fact that 
men, all men, may separate themselves for- 
ever from holiness and heaven, is also the 
fact that they may, all of them, take the 
unalterable oath, make the final choice, to 
stand by the banner of the cross, " fight the 
good fight of faith, and lay hold of the life 
eternal." Our question now is, Do any, 
have any, will any fail of doing this? 

This is a question the most logical rea- 
soning can not answer. It is a question of 
fact; and the facts in the case can be known 
only to those who are acquainted with the 
affairs of the spirit-world as well as with the 
events that have transpired, are transpiring, 
and will transpire, not only in the outward 
lives but in the most secret recesses of the 
souls of men here on earth. Such beings 
there are. The Uncaused Cause of all things 
knows the end from the beginning. " The 
only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of 



Eternal Punishment. 263 

the Father," who speaks of the glory he had 
with the Father before the world was, who 
"needed not that any one should bear wit- 
ness concerning man, for he himself knew 
what was in man," — these know all the facts 
in the case. Have they spoken? They 
surely have. Shall we listen to their utter- 
ances? May the Spirit of truth help us that 
we may both hear and believe. Of the 
many passages of the inspired word that 
might be cited a few will suffice. One 
word from these sources is as good as a 
thousand. 

Turn directly to Mat. xxv. 46, ''These 
shall go away into eternal punishment, but 
the righteous into eternal life." This most 
positive statement as to the facts in this 
case is from the lips of the Son of God, and, 
interpreted in the light of its connection, 
can not, as it appears to me, be honestly 
misunderstood. Words can not be made to 
express a more clear, unequivocal, unper- 
vertible statement on any subject. The oc- 
casion is the final judgment. The sentence 
was, verse 41, "Depart from me, ye cursed, 
into the eternal fire which is prepared for the 



264 Eternal Punishment . 

devil and- his angels " The indictment was, 
verse 42, "for I was an hungered, and ye 
gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave 
me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took 
me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; 
sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not." 
This means that they had failed to discharge 
the duties of man to his fellow man, in the 
circumstances supposed; they had not obeyed 
the law of love, and done to others as they 
would that others should do to them, and 
includes the circumstance that, when called 
to repentance for their sin, they had re- 
fused to do that. 

This one passage is sufficient to estab- 
lish the fact in question; but, on account of 
changed circumstances, we cite one more. 
Speaking of the self-sacrifices one should 
make, even of the most important members 
of the body, rather than be led into sin by 
them, he says, Mark ix. 47, 48, "It is good 
for thee to enter into the kingdom of God 
with one eye, rather that having two eyes to 
be cast into hell (not hades but gehenna), 
where their worm dieth not, and the fire is 
not quenched." 



Eternal Punishment. 265 

According to these straight forward, posi- 
tive, unequivocal passages, from the highest 
authority, there are two forms of sin — ne- 
glect of duties to our fellow men, and re- 
fusal to practice necessary self-denial, a duty 
we owe ourselves — that, unrepented, incur 
the everlasting displeasure of God. It fol- 
lows, therefore, from the positive statements 
of the Son of God, that men, m this life, 
not only may but actually do seal their own 
doom to eternal despair. 

In mathematics it is often, perhaps al- 
ways, possible to reach correct results by 
different processes of reasoning, each pro- 
cess thus proving the correctness of the re- 
sult, as well as the soundness of the argu- 
ment, in the other. We have another 
argument, equally Scriptural with the above, 
and with larger, though not better, show of 
logic, that clearly demonstrates the same 
conclusion. It is based on the usage of the 
words life and death. 

We read, Rom. vi. 23, "The wages of 
sin is death." We read again, Isa. lix. 2, 
"Your iniquities have separated between 
you and your God, and your sins have hid 



266 Eternal Punishment. 

his face from you." In Ps. xxx. 5, weread, 
" In his favor is life." Referring to the tree 
of forbidden fruit, in the garden of Eden, 
God said to our first parents, Gen. ii. 17, 
11 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
surely die." The death here threatened was 
spiritual death. They died no other in the 
day they ate thereof; but they did lose the 
favor of God, which is life. They were then 
dead. In the same manner. " death passed 
upon all men, for that all have sinned." 
Now read 1 John v. 1 1, 12, "This is the re- 
cord, that God hath given to us eternal life, 
and this life is in his Son. He that hath the 
Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son 
of God hath not life." Again, John iii. 36, 
11 He that believeth on the Son hath eter- 
nal life; but he that believeth not the Son 
shall not see life, but the wrath of God 
abideth on him." Note well, " shall not see 
life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." 
If the soul that is dead is not made alive by 
' ' repentance towards God and faith towards 
our Lord Jesus Christ," will not that death 
be eternal? and is not eternal death eternal 
punishment? Remember, Sin is death, and 



Eternal Punishment. 267 

death is hell, whether in this life or the life 
to come, and eternal sin is eternal hell. 
Thus this argument, whose refutation I defy, 
coincides precisely, in its conclusion, with 
what moral agency declares possible, and 
the Son of God has declared certain and ac- 
tual. ' ' He that hath ears to hear, let him 
hear." 

Considering the doctrine of eternal pun- 
ishment established upon an unshaken and 
immovable foundation, let us now inquire 
carefully, Who are the guilty and wretched 
individuals, for whom, "the blackness of 
darkness hath been reserved forever?" 

By referring to our first argument in 
this lecture, we find that those concerning 
whom the declaration is made, "These 
shall go away into everlasting punishment," 
are described as having neglected the com- 
mon civilities and benevolences due to their 
fellow men, under the divine law of love; "I 
was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; 
I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I 
was a stranger, and ye took me not in; 
naked, and ye clothed me not; sick and in 
prison, and ye visited me not." 



268 Eternal Punishment. 

Those who are in danger of ''the worm 
that dieth not and the fire that is not 
quenched," are such as refuse to "abstain 
from fleshly lusts, which war against the 
soul." If thine hand, or thy foot, or thine 
eye r cause thee to stumble, sacrifice them, 
for it is better to enter into the kingdom of 
God destitute of these members, than to be 
led astray by them, and be cast into hell. 
These are the indulgences that "separated 
between them and their God," the sins that 
hid his face from them, through which they 
lost his favor, which is life. 

Taking these references in connection with 
others that express God's willingness to par- 
don, and receive again into his favor, all 
who exercise genuine "repentance towards 
God and faith towards our Lord Jesus 
Christ," and also the consequences of re- 
fusal to accept salvation on those terms, we 
logically and safely conclude that "ever- 
lasting destruction from the presence of the 
Lord and the glory of his power," is the. 
portion only of such as, through intentional 
and stubborn resistance of the persuasive 
power of divine love and the strivings of 



Eternal Punishment. 269 

the Holy Spirit, have formed an unchange- 
able fixedness of moral alienation from and 
rebellion against the merciful Father, and 
all the benign influences of heaven and 
earth for their good, and all the well known 
terrific consequences of their unreasonable 
and persistent rebellion. They are lost, 
because they will not be saved. They have 
deliberately, knowingly, intentionally "cho- 
sen death rather than life;" and have thus 
banished themselves, with persistent pur- 
pose, from the presence and favor of a lov- 
ing and grief-stricken Father, at the very 
moment when he was in the full exercise of 
all his infinite attributes for their welfare, 
their salvation. What can be done to save 
from eternal despair souls that will not be 
attracted by the glories of heaven, nor per- 
suaded by the opportunities of earth, nor 
deterred by the wailings of the lost, from 
plunging themselves into the bottomless pit 
of unutterable and inevitable remorse and 
self-condemnation ? 

Owing to the fact that they are moral 
agents, that they are responsible them- 
selves for the choices they make and the 



i jo Eternal Punishment. 

courses" of life they elect to pursue, coercion 
was out of the question, and persuasion 
proved unavailing to save them from their 
self-determined fate. 

The eternal doom of such characters is 
fixed, not by a heartless edict of their Sove- 
reign, or sentence of their Judge, but by 
their own insane and stubborn willfulness. 
Alas! alas! They are lost! irredeemably, 
unchangeably, irrecoverably lost ! Though 
they are still moral agents, abiding in their 
deplorable condition voluntarily, and with 
ever increasing stubbornness and persist- 
ence, they surely will never, never, to all 
eternity, change their dreadful, self-imposed 
choice and determination. No influence 
can be brought to bear upon them that they 
have not already resisted, and overcome, 
under more favorable circumstances and 
environment. For them there is no escape 
from endless misery but annihilation, and 
that the extinction of their wretched exist- 
ence may ever come to their relief, however 
desirable this may seem, can not, though 
often attempted, be established by a fair 
construction of the word of God, and we 



Eternal Punishment. 271 

have no other source of information on that 
point. No act of suicide will furnish the 
lost soul a way of escape from eternal 
misery. 

Here we leave them in their own self- 
incurred, self-responsible, self-reproaching 
wretchedness. Between them .and "Abra- 
ham's bosom" "there is a great gulf fixed," 
but it is the gulf of a fixed purpose and 
character, not of an arbitrary edict of an 
angry, vengeful God. Sinner, escape for 
thy life; escape from thyself; lay hold on 
eternal life. 






LECTURE XI. 



FUTURE PROBATION. 

Moral agency, power to make choice 
where choice has not already been made, 
and to change a choice already made, must 
continue the same in the future as in the 
present life. The cessation of moral agency 
would be the cessation of guilt; and the ces- 
sation of guilt would, of necessity, in a per- 
fect moral government, be the cessation of 
punishment. To inflict punishment upon a 
creature — a soul — that is incapable, by a law 
of necessity, either of comprehending its 
justice or of being reformed thereby, would 
be the same as torturing a brute. Eternal 
punishment means eternal sin; and eternal 
sin means eternal moral agency None but 
a moral agent can sin. On this ground we 
erect our point of observation, from which 
io inquire into the question, whether future 
probation may be among the possibilities of 
a future existence. 



Future Probation. 273 

At the very threshold of this inquiry, we 
want to state distinctly that this question 
has no bearing upon and is of no significance 
whatever to those who have made their 
choices in this life, and settled the question 
of loyalty or disloyalty to God. That ques- 
tion settled once is settled forever. What- 
ever possibilities may still be open before 
those who have made their final choice, will 
be no more to them than the possibilities 
that they have already ignored and spurned. 
The law of the future life, to all such, is 
found in Rev. xxii. 11, "He that is un- 
righteous, let him be unrighteous still more; 
and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy 
still more; and he that is righteous, let him 
do righteousness still more; and he that is 
holy, let him be made holy still more." 

Bear in mind also that the final choice is 
not made, until the question of repentance 
and submission to God has been distinctly 
presented and decided, pro or con. They 
only are saved who have submitted to the 
process of regeneration, and become loyal 
subjects of the kingdom of God, the king- 
dom of Christ, the kingdom of heaven; and 

18 



274 Future Probation. 

they only are lost who have refused to sub- 
mit to this process, have rejected the offers 
of Mercy, have persisted in disloyalty to 
God, to Christ, to heaven; and thus have 
become loyal subjects of the devil and the 
kingdom of darkness. 

That many souls, having reached the 
years of accountability, and doubtless hav- 
ing brought guilt and condemnation upon 
themselves by wrong doing, have passed into 
the future life, without having had any well- 
defined consciousness of sin, or ever having 
had the faintest degree of true penitence 
therefor, or ever having formed a definite 
purpose either to persist in or to forsake 
sin, or ever having called upon God for par- 
don of sin and exercised faith in our Lord 
Jesus Christ that such pardon was granted, or 
having received the witness of the Spirit 
that they were accepted children of God, all 
of which we consider as unalterable con- 
ditions of salvation and eternal life, must 
undoubtedly be freely and unequivocally 
admitted. 

This class is very large. It will include 
multitudes of children of Christian and un- 



Future Probation. 275 

christian parents in gospel lands, and still 
greater multitudes in heathen lands, many 
of whom never heard the name of him who 
was called Jesus, ' ' because he should save 
his people from their sins; " and others of 
whom have only known of him by the hear- 
ing of the ear. Are these all lost? eternally 
and justly lost? 

At this point of our inquiry, whither shall 
we turn our eyes, that they may catch one 
ray of light, which, followed, will lead us 
out of the dense darkness that surrounds us? 
Inspiration has lifted the veil that hangs be- 
tween the present and the future, and let at 
least some degree of light fall upon all other 
eschatological questions, but no clear, dis- 
tinct ray glimmers from the word of God 
upon this one. Shall we drop it then, and 
relegate it to the dark regions of the un- 
knowable? thus acknowledging ourselves to 
be agnostic so far as this question is con- 
cerned? Others may be willing to do this, 
but I am not. The question has been 
raised, and it must be met. It must be 
studied in the best light we can bring to bear 
upon it, and the best conclusion possible 



276 Future Probation. 

must be reached. If independent, logical 
thinkers are not satisfied with our reasoning 
and conclusions, we may at least provoke 
them to further and more successful in- 
quiry. 

Nor am I willing to concede that we 
have no light on the subject, because no ray 
comes direct from the inspired word. Most 
of the objects seen in the material world are 
made visible by reflected rays, and no one 
doubts the reliability of his vision for that 
reason. In fact, the inspired word itself is 
only a mirror, reflecting truth from the 
great source of truth, the infinite mind. It 
must be that a careful search will reveal 
light enough, from some reflector, even on 
this question, to enable a candid mind to 
form an opinion having at least some of the 
characteristics of probability. In this con- 
fidence, let us 

First, contemplate him who is the self- 
luminous source of light. 

Of the disposition of God to save from 
sin, and from "the perdition of ungodly 
men," every human soul, and his abundant 
ability to save all who do not refuse to be 



Future Probation . 277 

saved, and spurn the mercy and persuasive 
power of our compassionate Redeemer, we 
are abundantly assured, and that, before any 
soul is abandoned to hopelessness and des- 
pair, every means that infinite mercy can 
prompt and infinite wisdom devise to save 
every soul will have been employed and ex- 
hausted, so that, if lost, every intelligence 
in the universe will acquit the final Judge of 
the least shade of a suspicion of injustice, in 
the final judgment pronounced, I think can 
not and will not be disputed by any one. 

Secondly, that the multitude of souls, to 
which we have referred above, who pass into 
' ' the world to come " without having volun- 
tarily and intelligently either accepted or re- 
jected the provisions of the gospel for their 
cleansing from sin and reconcilation to God, 
in this life, can be justly classed with the 
deliberately incorrigible, and consigned to 
the same final doom, at the final judgment, 
would be an assumption for the support of 
which few, at the present day, would claim 
either the declarations of Scripture or the 
affirmations of reason. There is no court on 
earth, and there certainly can be none in 



278 Future Probation. 

heaven, in which a person could be con- 
victed of a crime, in the commission of 
which, he acted no voluntary part, and 
of which he had no consciousness. Such a 
court would condemn the idiotic and insane 
for crimes that require intelligent " malice 
aforethought," of which they are utterly in- 
capable. The time was when distinguished 
theologians taught that God was an arbi- 
trary, irresponsible Sovereign, consulting 
only his own pleasure, and doing: all things 
for his own glory; but the time has come, 
and come to stay, when it is understood, 
with no perplexing shades of doubt about it, 
that God is thoroughly and always reason- 
able and benevolent; and every act of his, 
since the dawn of the first morning of time, 
has been prompted by the most perfect and 
unalloyed motive of promoting the welfare 
of his sentient, and especially of his intelli- 
gent, creatures. 

As bearing upon this question, it should 
also be remembered that the commission of 
sin, however heinous, is not the ground of 
final condemnation, the crime for which the 
guilty soul is eternally lost; but the refusal 



Future Probation. 279 

to repent and accept the proffered mercy 
and pardon, provided for in the redemptive 
sufferings and death of the holy and divine 
Son of God. This is the sin against the 
the Holy Spirit, that hath never forgiveness, 
neither in this world nor in that which is to 
to come; and there is no other such sin. On 
these grounds, both Scriptural and reason- 
able, we advocate the probability of proba- 
tion for this class — both an opportunity and 
inducements to exercise "repentance to- 
wards God and faith towards our Lord 
Jesus Christ," after passing through the 
gates of death. 

There is yet another class, whether 
larger or smaller than the class above men- 
tioned we do not know, who have passed 
out of this life before the period of moral 
agency and accountability had come to 
them. What shall we say about these ? 
We dislike to dispel the beautiful halos that 
have so long hung over the little mounds of 
earth that mark the resting places of de- 
voted mothers' dearest treasures; nor will 
we dispel them, though we must somewhat 
change their hues. 



280 Future Probation. 

As we have already seen, the glories of 
the heavenly world are for those who have 
proved their loyalty to truth, to righteous- 
ness, to God, either by resisting all forms of 
temptation to sin, as in the case of the holy 
angels and the Son of God; or, having 
sinned, have accepted the conditions on 
which pardon and restoration to the favor 
of God are offered, and have thus become 
overcomers " by the blood of the Lamb and 
the word of their testimony." Now infants, 
all who have not reached the age of moral 
accountability, belong to neither of these 
classes. They leave this life in the state of 
innocency, in which every moral agent in 
the universe must commence or must have 
commenced his existence; and from which 
character is formed, either holy or sinful, 
by the choice that each makes of obedience 
or disobedience, under conditions that we 
call probation. In this state of innocency 
they pass into the future life, into hades, 
the place of departed spirits. Now it ap- 
pears to me that nothing can be more 
certain than that probation, under some cir- 
cumstances, must await them there. Con- 



Future Probation. 281 

cerning the form or manner of the test of 
their loyalty, under which they make their 
choices, and form their character, and the 
influences for good or evil, that may be 
brought to bear upon them, I have no means 
that I am aware of of knowing anything, 
and hence decline to speculate, or even 
imagine. Only of one thing am I certain; 
being moral agents, they must form moral 
character, which implies probation. The 
inhabitants of heaven are not simply inno- 
cent, they must be holy. 

On the first page of this lecture, we have 
made the statement that eternal punishment 
means eternal sin; and eternal sin means 
eternal moral agency. Let me now add, 
Eternal moral agency means eternal proba- 
tion; not only for infants and for others who 
have not positively rejected Christ, but for 
all. Eternal holiness, which is eternal life, 
means eternal persistence in the choice of 
that which is good, in the presence of the 
possibility of choosing the evil. Eternal 
sin, which is eternal death, means eternal 
persistence in the choice of that which is 
evil, in the presence of the possibility of 



282 Future Probation. 

choosing the good. Either state is always 
and eternally a voluntary state. Intelligent 
existence under these circumstances is, in a 
limited sense, probation. The fact that the 
purpose is unalterable, to maintain, in the 
one case a state of loyalty, and in the other 
a state of disloyalty, to God and the good 
of being, does not destroy moral agency, 
and one of the conditions of moral agency is 
an alternative, and the opportunity to make 
a choice under an alternative is, in a limited 
sense, probation. Hence the fact that pro- 
bation after death is even questioned, is 
based upon a false assumption, that when 
the final choice is settled, and character is 
thus determined, moral agency, and with it 
probation, comes to a perpetual end. 

Of course, at this point, the question 
will be thrust upon me from every direction. 
May the lost sinner be saved then? and the 
saved saint in heaven commit sin and be 
lost? I answer, Yes they MAY, if they 
WILL. That, like every thing else con- 
nected with their moral character and sal- 
vation, will depend upon their choice in- 
dividually. The whole question is and al- 



Future Probation. 283, 

ways will be at their own disposal; and each 
will be accountable for the disposition he 
makes of his own case. And let me add, 
This is just as true of angels, the holy and 
the fallen, and of every other moral agent in 
the universe, including God himself, as it is 
of our own race. 

Here we have an interminable opportun- 
ity to change, coupled with an interminable 
certainty that no change will ever be made. 
While some may dispute that this is, in the 
strictest sense, probation, because of the ab- 
sence of solicitation, no one will deny that 
it is at least an invitation, which may be 
accepted or rejected. 

Do not shudder at the thought that there 
can be no moral stability where there is 
such liberty. It was once believed that 
there could be no stable form of government 
except an absolute monarchy. It is now 
well established that an intelligent republic, 
where each citizen is a free political agent, 
is the strongest form of government in the 
world. So it will yet be found that the 
firmness and stability of a moral purpose are 
more reliable, more enduring than moun- 



284 Future Probation. 

tains of granite. These are the conditions, 
and the only conditions, under which the 
grandest character, the noblest, purest, most 
exalted virtue, can be attained and held un- 
alterably through the ages of eternity. 

When "the heavens shall pass away 
with a great noise, and the elements 
(heavenly bodies) shall be dissolved with 
fervent heat, and the earth and the works 
that are therein shall be burned up," and 
during all the ages that follow, the fixed pur- 
pose of every moral agent will be waxing 
stronger and stronger. 

41 The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years; 
But thou shall nourish in immortal youth, 
Unhurt amidst the war of elements, 
The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds. " 

Should any poor, deluded sinner falsely 
and wickedly endeavor to use this doctrine 
as one of his "refuges of lies," with the idea 
that he will postpone repentance until he 
realizes the full consequences of sin in the 
future life, let him be assured that he who 
refuses the offers of Mercy, in this life, 
" who hath trodden under foot the Son of 



Future Probation. 285 

God, and hath counted the blood of the 
covenant an unholy thing, and hath done 
despite unto the Spirit of grace," will have 
already reached his unalterable purpose, and 
sealed his own eternal doom. In regard to 
all such, no inducements can reach them in 
the regions of despair that they will not al- 
ready, in this life, have spurned, scorned 
and defied. In their case, at least, there 
can be no doubt that every one will receive 
according to the deeds done in the body, 
whether they be good or bad. ' ' Choose ye 
this day whom ye will serve." 



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